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Seismologists investigating undersea earthquakes have found that molten rock lubricates faults. This decreases the amount of friction between sides of the fault and decreases the intensity of earthquakes. They also found that the fragmentation of fault lines along the seafloor contributes an earthquake-dampening effect.

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I think you've mis-read your source. The earthquakes are undersea because they are on the subduction thrust plane between a sinking ocean-floor plate and the continent above it, under the continental shelf. The lubricant is not molten rock but wet sea-floor sediment, but the friction does help the Aesthenosphere heat partially the subducting basalt, with the water also acting a flux to help the melting.

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9y ago

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