10 articles
Accretionary wedge
An accretionary wedge, also called an accretionary prism, is a body of sediment scraped off a subducting tectonic plate and thrust onto the overriding plate at a convergent boundary.
Aleutian subduction zone
The Aleutian subduction zone is the 3,000-km boundary where the Pacific plate subducts beneath North America along the Aleutian trench, source of the great 1964 Alaska earthquake.
Back-arc basin
A back-arc basin is a region of rifting and seafloor spreading behind a volcanic arc at a convergent plate margin, first proposed for western Pacific marginal seas in 1971.
Flat-slab subduction
Flat-slab subduction is a style of subduction in which an oceanic plate flattens at about 100 km depth and runs nearly horizontally beneath the overriding plate.
Forearc
A forearc is the region of a subduction zone between the ocean trench and the volcanic arc, hosting the shallow megathrust where the largest earthquakes nucleate.
Hikurangi subduction margin
The Hikurangi subduction margin is the plate boundary off New Zealand's East Coast where the Pacific plate subducts beneath the Australian plate, a major earthquake and tsunami hazard source.
Japan Trench
The Japan Trench is an oceanic trench off northeastern Japan where the Pacific Plate subducts beneath the overriding plate, causing major earthquakes, including the 2011 magnitude 9.0 Tohoku quake.
Nankai Trough
The Nankai Trough (南海トラフ) is an oceanic trench off southwest Japan where the Philippine Sea Plate subducts beneath the Eurasian plate, producing recurring magnitude-8 earthquakes.
Slab detachment
Slab detachment, also called slab break-off, is the separation of a dense subducted oceanic slab from lighter lithosphere during continental collision, after which the slab sinks into the mantle.
Slab rollback
Slab rollback is the seaward migration of the subduction hinge, driven by the negative buoyancy of the sinking slab, and is the leading model for back-arc basin formation.