At what depth do earthquake occur?What is the significance of the depth?（地震发生在什么深度？深度的意义是什么？）

Earthquakes occur in the crust or upper mantle,which ranges from the earth's surface to about 800 kilometers deep(about 500 miles).

地震发生在地壳和地幔上层，距离地球表面范围大概800km深度 （大约500英尺）。

The strength of shaking from an earthquake diminishes with increasing distance from the earthquake's source,so the strength of shaking at the surface from an earthquake that occurs at 500km deep is considerably less than if the same earthquake had occurred at 20km depth.

地震震动的强度会随着地震源深度的增加而减小，所以发生在500km深度的地震震动强度小于发生在20km的地震震动强度。

Also,the depth of earthquakes gives us an information about the Earth's structure and tectonic setting where the earthquakes are occuring.The prominent example of this is in subduction zones,where plate are colliding and one plate is being subducted beneath another.By carefully plotting the location and depth of earthquakes associated with a subduction zone,we can see details of the zone's structure,such as how steeply it is dipping,and if the down-going plate is planar or is bending.These details is important because they give us insight into the mechanics and characteristics of deformation in the subduction zone.

所以，地震的深度给了我们一些重要的信息，这些信息是关于地震发生时地球结构和构造体环境。最重要的例子是俯冲地带，一个板块俯冲到另一个板块下面。通过仔细绘制地震相关俯冲地带的位置和深度，我们可以看到俯冲地带的结构细节，例如倾斜的陡度，下降板块是倾斜的还是弯曲的。这些细节非常重要，因为他们让我们了解了俯冲地带变形的力学和特征。

The deepest earthquakes occur within the core of subducting slabs - oceanic plates that descend into the Earth's mantle from covergent plate boundaries,where a dense oceanic plate collides with a less dense continental plate and the former sinks beneath the latter.The plate boundary contact between two such plates generate very large, shallow subduction zone earthquakes such as the Sumartra 2004 M9.1 event, and the 2011 M9.0 Japan earthquake,and is only active to relatively shallow depths - approximately 60km.However,because oceanic slabs are relatively cold with respect to surrounding mantle in deeper subduction zone environments,faults within the core of these slab remain brittle and generate earthquakes to depth of as much as 700km（e.g.,Pacific Plate beneath Japan and Kamchatka,and beneath Tonga）.

最深的地震发生在俯冲板块的核心，俯冲板块是由汇聚板块边界进入到地幔的一部分海洋板块。密度大的海洋板块与密度小的大陆板块相碰撞，前者沉到后者之下。两个板块之间的板块接触产生了非常大的、浅层的俯冲地带地震，例如2004年的苏门答腊岛M9.1地震和2011年的日本M9.0地震，并且只在相对较浅的深度--大约60公里。然而，在较深的俯冲带环境中，与周围的地幔相比，海洋板块相对较冷，这些板块儿的核心内的断层仍然很脆弱可以在深度达700km的地方产生地震（例如在日本、勘察加半岛和汤加下面的太平洋板块）。

As the slab descends into the mantle,rheology changes(viscosity characteristics) cause the plate to bend and deform,and generates these earthquakes.The trends of events can be seen in cross-sections of subduction zones,and are knowns as "Wadati-Benioff Zones".

随着板块下沉到地幔，流变学变化（粘性特征）可以导致板块弯曲和变形从而产生地震。事件的变化趋势可以在俯冲带的横截面上看到，被称作“瓦达提-贝尼奥夫带”。

Within continents,and along continental plate boundary transform faults such as the San Andreas,faults  are only active in the shallow crust-perhaps to depths of approximately 20 km.

在大陆内部，以及沿着大陆板块边界的断层，如圣安地列斯，断层只在地壳浅层活跃--深度大约为20 km。

Accurately determining the depth of an earthquake is typically more challenging than determining its location,unless there happens to be a seismic station close and above the epicenter.So generally, errors on depth determinations are somewhat greater than on location determinations.

精确地测量地震深度比测量地震位置更具有挑战，除非他的震中发生在地震站。一般来说深度的误差比位置的误差大一些。