I recently participated in a three-week-long, National Science Foundation-funded research cruise to the Mariana Trench. Our ...

Sedimentary rocks originally deposited on the oceanic plate are scraped off and accreted to the western edge of the continent; the initiation of this process is indicated by the deformation front in ...

These ancient buried "super-continents"—known to scientists as large low-seismic-velocity provinces (LLSVPs)—were found lurking below Africa and the Pacific Ocean, entombed some 1,200 miles below the ...

The Earth's surface is constantly reshaped by the movement of tectonic plates, which make up the continental crust on which ...

Researchers found that an inactive subduction zone under the Strait of Gibraltar may begin migrating into the Atlantic Ocean, commencing the shrinking process. The zone also brings a higher risk ...

Finally, using their geodynamic mantle-flow model, they simulated the full extent of the subduction process and validated the ...

However, there is no evidence of plate subduction—a geological process in which one tectonic plate is forced beneath another as they converge at a plate boundary—anywhere near this region.

Megathrust earthquakes occur when stress at subduction zones is released, causing significant plate slippage. These events disrupt long-term tectonic changes, complicating modeling efforts.

Amid Earth’s mobile tectonic plates, subduction zones arise as regions of intense geological activity and concentrate minerals into ore deposits like gold.