Hi Kareem,
                  ohhh gosh, where do I start  :)    Oh... Maj 
M7.5+  events are NOT restricted
to subduction zones  :)  Think of the big ones in SW Missouri, New Madrid, 
1811-1812;
Lisbon, Portugal 1755, M8.7  some of the large  M7.9 or so ruptures of the 
San Andreas
fault.

ok some differences (and others can chime in with ones I forget about)......

1) The focal mechanism are very different to strike-slip faults  have a 
look at the brief
explanation on my www page... http://www.sydneystormcity.com/fomec.htm
It is a direct result of these types of motions that give rise to tsunamis 
that wouldnt be
created by a strike slip motion on the seafloor.

2) The quakes can be VERY deep. It is relatively rare for strike slip 
events to be deeper
than ~ 50km. Whereas subduction events can be as deep as 650km.  Have a look
through the USGS records for events in the Kermadec to Fiji region, north 
of New
Zealand ( and even under the North Island of NZ)
    The reasons for the causes of the really deep subduction events is 
quite amazing.....
In regions as mentioned in previous paragraph, the seafloor is subducting 
so fast in that
region, it gets very deep before its core becomes "plastic" and starts to 
melt all the way
through.  That is the core can still be cold have brittle failure whilst 
the outer layers of the
  subducting slab is virtually molten.  Plate motion rates are in excess of 
8cm / year as
they are off the east coast of Japan.

ok there's a little morsel for you to chew on for a start  :)

cheers
Dave
Sydney



At 11:48 AM 15/03/2011, you wrote:
>Aside from the large magnitude (i.e. M8.0+) What's the difference between
>these subduction zone events and events along a transform plate boundary?
>Kareem
>Elk Grove, California

__________________________________________________________

Public Seismic Network Mailing List (PSNLIST)

To leave this list email PSNLIST-REQUEST@.............. with 
the body of the message (first line only): unsubscribe
See http://www.seismicnet.com/maillist.html for more information.