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These barrier zones are spots where the fault splits into smaller cracks and traps seawater.
When an earthquake hits, pressure drops in these water-filled rocks make the area stiffen up—a process called dilatancy strengthening.
This basically puts on the brakes and keeps ruptures from growing.
Seafloor experiments even showed bursts of tiny tremors before big quakes, then silence as everything resets.
As the lead author put it, this gives us a new look at how Earth's hidden structures control earthquakes under the ocean.