Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Subduction zone physics: Sinking of the oceanic lithosphere (sediments, crust, mantle), by the contrast of density between the cold and old lithosphere and the hot asthenospheric mantle wedge, is the strongest force (but not the only one) needed to drive plate motion and is the dominant mode of mantle convection. [citation needed]
Subduction zones host a unique variety of rock types formed by the high-pressure, low-temperature conditions a subducting slab encounters during its descent. [4] The metamorphic conditions the slab passes through in this process generates and alters water bearing (hydrous) mineral phases, releasing water into the mantle.
Abyssal plains cover more than 33% of the ocean floor (about 23% of Earth's surface), [2] but they are poorly preserved in the sedimentary record because they tend to be consumed by the subduction process. [1] [3] [4] The abyssal plain is formed when the lower oceanic crust is melted and forced upwards by the asthenosphere layer of the upper ...
Subduction zones are areas where one lithospheric plate slides beneath another at a convergent boundary due to lithospheric density differences. These plates dip at an average of 45° but can vary. Subduction zones are often marked by an abundance of earthquakes, the result of internal deformation of the plate, convergence with the opposing ...
A Wadati–Benioff zone (also Benioff–Wadati zone or Benioff zone or Benioff seismic zone) is a planar zone of seismicity corresponding with the down-going slab in a subduction zone. [1] Differential motion along the zone produces numerous earthquakes , the foci of which may be as deep as about 670 km (420 mi).
The zone includes most of the islands of Vanuatu, the Santa Cruz islands of the southern Solomon Islands, [4] and the Loyalty Islands.A number of ocean floor features are related to the zone, in particular the New Hebrides Trench (South New Hebridies Trench) [5] and the North New Hebrides Trench (Torres Trench) which is separated from the southern trench by the d'Entrecasteaux Ridge and the ...
In structural geology, a suture is a joining along a major fault zone, of separate terranes, tectonic units that have different plate tectonic, metamorphic and paleogeographic histories. The suture is often represented on the surface by an orogen or mountain range. [1]
Here, the Pacific Plate is being subducted underneath the North American Plate and the rate of subduction changes from west to east from 7.5 to 5.1 cm (3.0 to 2.0 in) per year. [2] The Aleutian subduction zone includes two prominent features, the Aleutian Arc and the Aleutian Trench. The Aleutian Arc was created via volcanic eruptions from ...