The present solid Earth is actually active, with new plates generating in the mid-ocean ridges and some old plates sinking back into the interior through subduction zones. Subduction is thus a key ...

Elements of a newly discovered process in plate tectonics include a mass (rock slab weight), a pulley (trench), a dashpot (microcontinent), and a string (oceanic plate) that connects these elements to ...

Our planet's lithosphere is broken into several tectonic plates. Their configuration is ever-shifting, as supercontinents are assembled and broken up, and oceans form, grow, and then start to close in ...

One longstanding enigma in geology is how one tectonic plate can break Earth's rock-hard shell and begin diving under another in the process known as subduction. "We now know how subduction nucleated ...

Subduction zones are fundamental engines of plate tectonics, where oceanic lithosphere descends into the mantle, driving seismicity, magmatism and crustal recycling. The interaction of a subducting ...

A new study has produced the first comprehensive survey of the many complex structures beneath the seafloor in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, off British Columbia, Washington, Oregon and California. It ...

Recent seismic imaging off Vancouver Island has revealed something extraordinary: a tear in the subducting oceanic plate beneath the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The finding briefly raised the public’s ...

Map highlighting the Atlantic subduction zones, the fully developed Lesser Antilles and Scotia arcs on the western side and the incipient Gibraltar arc on the eastern side. From Duarte et al., 2018.