Editing Ryukyu Trench (section)

{{short description|Oceanic trench along the southeastern edge of Japan's Ryukyu Islands in the Pacific Ocean}}
[[File:Okinawa trench topographic.png|thumb|300px|Red line indicates the bathymetric low of the Ryukyu Trench]]
The {{nihongo|'''Ryukyu Trench'''|琉球海溝|''Ryūkyū kaikō''}}, also called '''Nansei-Shotō Trench''', is a 1398&nbsp;km (868&nbsp;mi)<ref name="oceana">{{cite web|url=http://oceana.org/en/explore/marine-places/ryukyu-trench|title=Ryukyu Trench|work=Marine Places|publisher=Oceana.org|accessdate=3 March 2012|archive-date=13 November 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113155509/http://oceana.org/en/explore/marine-places/ryukyu-trench|url-status=dead}}</ref> long [[oceanic trench]] located along the southeastern edge of [[Japan]]'s [[Ryukyu Islands]] in the [[Philippine Sea]] in the [[Pacific Ocean]], between northeastern [[Taiwan]] and southern Japan. The trench has a maximum depth of 7460&nbsp;m (24,476&nbsp;ft).<ref name=oceana /> The trench is the result of oceanic crust of the [[Philippine Plate]] obliquely subducting beneath the continental crust of the [[Eurasian plate]]<ref name="encyclopedia">{{cite web|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com|title=Ryukyu Trench|last=Allaby|first=Alissa|author2=Michael Allaby |year=1999|publisher=Encyclopedia.com|accessdate=3 March 2012}}</ref> at a rate of approximately 52&nbsp;mm/yr.<ref name="northend">{{cite journal|last=Nishiwaza|first=Azusa|author2=Kentaro Kaneda|author3=Mitsuhiro Oikawa|title=Seismic Structure of the Northern End of the Ryukyu Trench Subduction Zone, Southeast of Kyushu, Japan|journal=Earth, Planets and Space|date=2009 |volume=61|issue=8|pages=37–40|doi=10.1186/BF03352942 |bibcode=2009EP&S...61E..37N |doi-access=free }}</ref> In conjunction with the adjacent [[Nankai Trough]] to the northeast, subduction of the Philippine plate has produced 34 volcanoes.<ref name="volcano">{{cite journal|last=Chang-Hwa|first=Chang-Hwa|year=2003|title=The Caldera Eruptions in Ryukyu Arc: As Inferred the Thermal Anomaly in Kyushu|journal=Journal of the Balneological Society of Japan|publisher=Science Links Japan|volume=53|issue=3|pages=90–91|url=http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200403/000020040304A0063980.php|accessdate=3 Mar 2012|archive-date=15 August 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110815130337/http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200403/000020040304A0063980.php|url-status=dead}}</ref>
The largest earthquake to have been recorded along the Ryukyu Trench, the [[1968 Hyūga-nada earthquake]],
was magnitude 7.5 and occurred along the northernmost part of the trench<ref name=northend /> on 1 April 1968.<ref name="quake">{{cite journal|last=Yuji|first=Yagi|author2=M. Kikuchi|author3=T. Sagiya|title=Co-seismic slip, post-seismic slip, and aftershocks associated with two large earthquakes in 1996 in Hyuga-nada, Japan|journal=Earth, Planets and Space|volume=53|issue=8|pages=793–803|doi=10.1186/BF03351677|year=2001|bibcode=2001EP&S...53..793Y |doi-access=free}}</ref> This earthquake also produced a [[tsunami]].