{"id":21723,"date":"2024-03-21T11:14:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T05:44:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21723"},"modified":"2025-04-06T14:10:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-06T08:40:20","slug":"subduction-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/subduction-zone\/","title":{"rendered":"What is a Subduction Zone?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Subduction Zone<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>A subduction zone is a\u00a0spot where two of the\u00a0planet&#8217;s tectonic plates collide\u00a0and\u00a0one dives, or subducts, beneath the other.\n<ul>\n<li>Tectonic plates are pieces of the Earth\u2019s rigid outer layer that\u00a0slowly move across the\u00a0planet&#8217;s surface over millions of years.<\/li>\n<li>This is the main tenet of\u00a0plate tectonics, the theory that portions of Earth&#8217;s shell glide over the lower mantle, taking continents with them.<\/li>\n<li>That\u00a0outer layer, known as the\u00a0lithosphere,\u00a0consists of the Earth\u2019s crust\u00a0and the\u00a0upper section of the mantle, a dense, hot layer beneath the crust.<\/li>\n<li>When two tectonic plates meet at a subduction zone and\u00a0one slides underneath the other, this\u00a0lithosphere material curves down into the hot mantle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>This tectonic process\u00a0can produce some of the planet\u2019s\u00a0most powerful earthquakes,\u00a0tsunamis, and volcanoes.<\/li>\n<li>This subduction process\u00a0frequently occurs\u00a0because of the\u00a0two different types of\u00a0lithospheres that\u00a0make up tectonic plates:\u00a0Continental and oceanic.\n<ul>\n<li>Because\u00a0oceanic material is denser than continental lithosphere,\u00a0when the two collide at a subduction zone, the\u00a0oceanic portion sinks\u00a0into the mantle beneath the more buoyant continental lithosphere.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Subduction zones\u00a0can also occur when both colliding plate sections consist of oceanic material. In these cases,\u00a0older, denser oceanic lithosphere sinks below younger, more buoyant oceanic lithosphere.\n<ul>\n<li>A new oceanic lithosphere forms at the spots where plates separate, allowing hot mantle material to rise to the surface. As it moves away from those boundaries, this lithosphere cools and gets denser. Thus, older oceanic lithosphere can more easily sink.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The sinking plate, or &#8220;slab,&#8221; at a subduction zone tends to\u00a0bend\u00a0at an angle of about 30\u00a0degrees from Earth&#8217;s surface,\u00a0though some angles are\u00a0flatter or steeper than this.<\/li>\n<li>Sometimes,\u00a0subduction can\u00a0begin spontaneously,\u00a0without the forces of collision between plates. This\u00a0happens as the lithosphere becomes unstable and sinks\u00a0under the force of\u00a0gravity. The oceanic lithosphere may grow so old and dense that it collapses and spontaneously forms a subduction zone.<\/li>\n<li>Subduction zones\u00a0occur in a horseshoe shape around the edge of the Pacific Ocean, offshore of the USA, Canada, Russia, Japan, and Indonesia, and down to New Zealand and the southern edge of South America.<\/li>\n<li>Called the &#8220;Ring of Fire,&#8221; these subduction zones\u00a0comprise \u201cthe most seismically and volcanically active zone in the world,\u201d, responsible for more than\u00a080% of the world&#8217;s biggest earthquakes\u00a0and\u00a0most of the planet\u2019s active volcanoes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is a Strait?<\/h3>\n<p>A strait is a narrow waterway between two pieces of land that connects two large bodies of water. Well-known straits include the Bering Strait, which links the Arctic Ocean with the Bering Sea and separates the continents of Asia and North America at their closest point. The Strait of Gibraltar, located between Spain and Africa, connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean. The Strait of Magellan lies between the southern tip of South America and the islands of Tierra del Fuego and links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/home\/science\/subduction-zone-discovered-beneath-gibraltar-strait-concerns-raised-over-future-of-atlantic-ocean\/articleshow\/108645478.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Subduction zone discovered beneath Gibraltar Strait: Concerns raised over future of Atlantic ocean<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A subduction zone is a spot where two of the planet&#8217;s tectonic plates collide and one dives, or subducts, beneath the other. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":21724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}