The process that carries the edge of one tectonic plate down under another and into the mantle at a convergent boundary, reducing Earth's total crustal surface area and balancing the new crust seafloor spreading creates. It is also the mechanism behind most of the planet's deepest earthquakes and its most explosive volcanoes. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
TimescaleOngoing, millions of years per cycle 2 Driving ForceOnce underway, subduction is driven mainly by the negative buoyancy of the dense, cold slab of oceanic lithosphere pulling itself downward. 1 Resulting FeatureSubduction builds long chains of volcanoes, known as volcanic arcs, above the descending slab. 1 SignificanceSubduction is the driving force behind plate tectonics; without it, plate tectonics could not occur. 1 Driving Force
Driving Force (category) Timescale
Timescale (category) Connections
Associated With
The largest faults include the megathrust faults of subduction zones.
Source Fault, Geology (Wikipedia)
Causes
Source Huaynaputina (Wikipedia)
Source 1700 Cascadia earthquake (Wikipedia)
A megathrust rupture on the Sunda subduction zone, where the Indian Plate is subducting beneath the Burma microplate.
Source 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami (Wikipedia)
A megathrust rupture where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the plate carrying northern Honshu.
Source 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (Wikipedia)
Source Aconcagua (Wikipedia)
Source Antilles (Wikipedia)
Source Carpathian Mountains (Wikipedia)
Source Iles des Saintes (Wikipedia)
Source Indus-Yarlung suture zone (Wikipedia)
Source Jadeite (Wikipedia)
Source Kanlaon (Wikipedia)
Source Lesser Sunda Islands (Wikipedia)
Source Licancabur (Wikipedia)
Source Surin Islands (Wikipedia)
The largest tsunamis are generated by sudden seafloor displacement in subduction-zone megathrust earthquakes.
Source Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (Wikipedia)
Source Volcanic arc (Wikipedia)
In Discipline
Source Plate Tectonics (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Subduction (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationSubduction and plate tectonics (driving force)
Once initiated, stable subduction is driven mostly by the negative buoyancy of the dense subducting lithosphere.
Structure of subduction zones
Beyond the forearc basin, volcanoes are found in long chains called volcanic arcs.
Subduction and plate tectonics (significance)
Subduction is the driving force behind plate tectonics, and without it, plate tectonics could not occur.
Lead
at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates
View the Source 2. Plate Tectonics (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationConvergent boundaries section, describing subductionQuote, Convergent boundaries section, describing subduction
Along convergent plate boundaries, the process of subduction carries the edge of one plate down under the other plate and into the mantle.
Surin Islands (Wikipedia)
Causes: Surin Islands, Article text (sections)
Geological theories suggest that a subduction event during the Mesozoic era, involving the Burma and Sunda Plates, led to the formation of the numerous granite islands and undersea pinnacles along the west coast of Thailand.
Causes: Surin Islands, Article text, process Subduction
Geological theories suggest that a subduction event during the Mesozoic era, involving the Burma and Sunda Plates, led to the formation of the numerous granite islands and undersea pinnacles along the west coast of Thailand.
View the SourceAconcagua (Wikipedia)
Causes: Aconcagua, Lead, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Aconcagua, Lead, process Subduction
Aconcagua was formed by the subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate and was once an active stratovolcano, before tectonic shifts during the Miocene halted volcanic activity.
Carpathian Mountains (Wikipedia)
Causes: Carpathian Mountains, Article text, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Carpathian Mountains, Article text, process Subduction
The Carpathian mountains were formed during the Alpine orogeny in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic by moving the ALCAPA (Alpine-Carpathian-Pannonian), Tisza and Dacia plates over subducting oceanic crust.
Iles des Saintes (Wikipedia)
Causes: Îles des Saintes, Article text, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Îles des Saintes, Article text, process Subduction
By origin, it was a unique island that the tectonic and volcanic earthquakes separate to create an archipelago due to the subduction zone between the South American plate, the North American plate and the Caribbean plate.
Indus-Yarlung suture zone (Wikipedia)
Causes: Indus-Yarlung Suture Zone, Lead, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Indus-Yarlung Suture Zone, Lead, process Subduction
More recently it has been suggested that these ophiolites formed during Early Cretaceous subduction initiation (Hu and Stern, 2020).
Kanlaon (Wikipedia)
Causes: Kanlaon Volcano, Article text, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Kanlaon Volcano, Article text, process Subduction
It is part of the Negros volcanic belt resulting from the subduction of Sulu Sea basin lithosphere of the Sunda plate along the Negros Trench and has been an active subduction zone since the Miocene.
Lesser Sunda Islands (Wikipedia)
Causes: Lesser Sunda Islands, Lead, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Lesser Sunda Islands, Lead, process Subduction
The islands are part of a volcanic arc, the Sunda Arc, formed by subduction along the Sunda Trench in the Java Sea.
Licancabur (Wikipedia)
Causes: Licancabur, Article text, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Licancabur, Article text, process Subduction
Since the Jurassic period, the Farallon Plate and later the Nazca Plate have been subducting under the South American Plate in the Peru-Chile Trench.
Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes (Wikipedia)
Causes: Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Article text, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, Article text, process Subduction
Most prevalent though are the Quaternary stratovolcanoes along the Aleutian Arc associated with the Aleutian subduction zone.
Volcanic arc (Wikipedia)
Causes: Volcanic Arc, Lead, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Volcanic Arc, Lead, process Subduction
A volcanic arc (also known as a magmatic arc) is a belt of volcanoes formed above a subducting oceanic tectonic plate, with the belt arranged in an arc shape as seen from above.
Jadeite (Wikipedia)
Causes: Jadeite, LeadQuote, Causes: Jadeite, Lead
Jadeite is formed only in the subduction zones of continental margins, where rock undergoes metamorphism at high pressure but relatively low temperature.
1700 Cascadia earthquake (Wikipedia)
Causes: 1700 Cascadia Earthquake, Lead paragraph (caused-by)Quote, Causes: 1700 Cascadia Earthquake, Lead paragraph (caused-by)
The 1700 Cascadia earthquake occurred along the Cascadia subduction zone on January 26, 1700, with an estimated moment magnitude of 8.7-9.2.
Antilles (Wikipedia)
Causes: Antilles, Lead, process SubductionQuote, Causes: Antilles, Lead, process Subduction
The Lesser Antilles are mostly young volcanic islands created by the Lesser Antilles subduction zone.
Huaynaputina (Wikipedia)
Causes: 1600 Huaynaputina Eruption, Lead sentenceQuote, Causes: 1600 Huaynaputina Eruption, Lead sentence
Lying in the Central Volcanic Zone of the Andes, it was formed by the subduction of the oceanic Nazca Plate under the continental South American Plate.
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