Megathrust

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sudden large-scale slip along a fault between a subducting and an overriding plate, resulting in a major earthquake.

    "On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., a magnitude-9 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan."

Example

More examples

"On March 11, 2011, at 2:46 p.m., a magnitude-9 undersea megathrust earthquake struck off the northeastern coast of Japan."

Etymology

From mega- + thrust.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.