subduction

[ suhb-duhk-shuhn ]

noun

1. an act or instance of subducting; subtraction or withdrawal.
2. Geology. the process by which collision of the earth's crustal plates results in one plate's being drawn down or overridden by another, localized along the juncture subduction zone of two plates.

subduction

/ səbˈdʌkʃən /

noun

1. the act of subducting, esp of turning the eye downwards
2. geology the process of one tectonic plate sliding under another, resulting in tensions and faulting in the earth's crust, with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

subduction

/ səb-dŭk′shən /

1. A geologic process in which one edge of one lithospheric plate is forced below the edge of another. The denser of the two plates sinks beneath the other. As it descends, the plate often generates seismic and volcanic activity (from melting and upward migration of magma) in the overriding plate.
2. Compare obduction

Word History and Origins

Origin of subduction¹

1570–80; < Latin subductiōn-, stem of subductiō pulling up, computation; subduct, -ion

Example Sentences

Some of the strongest earthquakes that people experience occur along subduction zones.

From Science News For Students

In New Zealand, where Wallace works, earthquakes do indeed occur during slow-slip events along this region’s subduction zones.

From Science News For Students

The Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world, occurs in a subduction zone.

From Vox

Kane, for instance, points out that a planet’s habitability is guided by a number of factors, including plate tectonics and subduction—a process that recycles carbon from the atmosphere into the planet’s interior—and its atmospheric chemistry.

From MIT Technology Review

They base this on tiny, 4-billion-year-old crystals whose chemistry resembles that of modern rocks produced in subduction zones.

From Quanta Magazine

Predicting the exact arrival of a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake is also nearly impossible, and constantly evolving.

From The Daily Beast

The Cascadia Subduction Zone is the wonky name for the place where all this mayhem will begin.

From The Daily Beast

Subduction zones are found where one plate overrides, or subducts, another, pushing it downward into the mantle where it melts.

From Project Gutenberg

There are three types of plate boundaries: spreading zones, transform faults, and subduction zones.

From Project Gutenberg

Most faulting along spreading zones is normal, along subduction zones is thrust, and along transform faults is strike-slip.

From Project Gutenberg

And from hence lastly doth arise the solidity of the section, by addition and subduction.

From Project Gutenberg

The lines with barbs show zones of underthrusting (subduction), where one plate is sliding beneath another.

From Project Gutenberg