The microcontinent then extends during its journey to the subduction trench owing to the tensional force applied by the pull of the rock slab pull across the subduction zone (Figure b).

This oceanic trench was created by a dramatic geological process called subduction—where one massive slab of Earth’s crust (the Pacific Plate) slid under a smaller one (the Mariana Plate).

Tonga Trench ranks as the second deepest ocean trench, located in the southwest Pacific at the northern end of the Kermadec Tonga Subduction Zone. It lies at a depth of 35,700 feet. Other ...

Deep trenches appear at these boundaries, caused by the oceanic plate bending downward into the Earth. Deep below the Earth's surface, subduction causes partial melting of both the ocean crust and ...

A subduction zone, composed of the deep Aleutian Trench coupled with a landward line of volcanoes, creates a series of offshore islands (the Aleutians) as well as a line of volcanoes along the ...

The extreme depth of the Mariana Trench and other oceanic trenches is caused by subduction. This is where on the boundary of two converging tectonic plates, one descends down into Earth's mantle, ...