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 Antilles (Wikipedia)
The largest tsunamis are generated by sudden seafloor displacement in subduction-zone megathrust earthquakes.
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.
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, LeadQuote, Causes: Antilles, Lead
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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