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Associated with the slab suction force is the idea of trench roll-back. As a slab of oceanic crust subducts into the mantle, the hinge of the plate (the point where the plate begins to subduct) tends to regress away from the trench. This occurs because there is effectively no force to hold the hinge in one location. [5]
The subduction of bathymetric highs such as aseismic ridges, oceanic plateaus, and seamounts has been posited as the primary driver of flat slab subduction. [3] The Andean flat slab subduction zones, the Peruvian slab and the Pampean (Chilean) flat slab, are spatially correlated with the subduction of bathymetric highs, the Nazca Ridge and the Juan Fernandéz Ridge, respectively.
The backward motion of the subduction zone relative to the motion of the plate which is being subducted is called trench rollback (also known as hinge rollback or hinge retreat). As the subduction zone and its associated trench pull backward, the overriding plate is stretched, thinning the crust and forming a back-arc basin.
The figure is a schematic diagram depicting a subduction zone. The subduction slab on the right enters the mantle with a varying temperature gradient while importing water in a downward motion. A model of the subducting Farallon slab under North America. In geology, the slab is a significant constituent of subduction zones. [1]
Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc, Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean 11,034 36,197 6.86 2 Tonga Trench: Pacific Ocean 10,882 35,702 6.76 3 Emden Deep: Philippine Trench, Pacific Ocean 10,545 34,580 6.54 4 Kuril–Kamchatka Trench: Pacific Ocean 10,542 34,449 6.52 5 Kermadec Trench: Pacific Ocean 10,047 32,963 6.24 6 Izu–Ogasawara Trench: Pacific Ocean ...
Slab pull is a geophysical mechanism whereby the cooling and subsequent densifying of a subducting tectonic plate produces a downward force along the rest of the plate. In 1975 Forsyth and Uyeda used the inverse theory method to show that, of the many forces likely to be driving plate motion, slab pull was the strongest. [1]
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Plate tectonics (from Latin tectonicus, from Ancient Greek τεκτονικός (tektonikós) 'pertaining to building') [1] is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago.