Word.ws English Dictionary

megathrust

megathrust noun: a sudden large-scale slip along a fault between a subducting and an overriding plate, resulting in a major earthquake.

Noun

megathrust (plural megathrusts)

  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.2021, Ruth Ozeki, The Book of Form and Emptiness, Canongate Books (2022), page 458

Forms of megathrust

pluralmegathrusts

Origin of megathrust

From mega- + thrust.

Questions about megathrust

What does megathrust mean?
Megathrust means a sudden large-scale slip along a fault between a subducting and an overriding plate, resulting in a major earthquake.
What part of speech is megathrust?
Megathrust is a noun.
What is the plural of megathrust?
The plural of megathrust is megathrusts.

Words near megathrust in the dictionary

  1. megathreads
  2. megathrombocyte
  3. megathrombocytes
  4. megathrombocytopenia
  5. megathrombocytosis
  6. megathrust
  7. megathrusts
  8. megathymid
  9. megathymids
  10. megatick
  11. megaticks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: megathrust (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “megathrust.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/megathrust. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.