What does the word "subduction" have to do with volcanoes?
Burt Hicks
Hi Burt,
Subduction is the name of the process when an oceanic tectonic plate gets
shoved underneath either another oceanic plate or a continental plate.
The places where this happens are called subduction zones, and they are
associated with ocean trenches. As the plate gets pushed further and
further down it starts to give off its volatiles (mostly water), and
these migrate upwards into the mantle just under the overriding plate.
The addition of these volatiles to this overriding mantle probably lowers
the melting point of that mantle so that magma is generated. Part of the
magma may also be generated by the downgoing plate actually starting to
melt as it gets into the hotter and hotter interior.
Since the great majority of active volcanoes are associated with
subduction zones (mostly around the rim of the Pacific) you can see that
subduction has a lot to do with volcanology.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland
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