Island arcs, which arise from volcanic activity along subduction zones where one tectonic plate dives beneath another, play a crucial role in the formation of the continental crust.

Subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate creating the Aleutian trench and volcanic island arc (Credit: Alaska Volcano Observatory). Click image for a larger view.

The Andaman-Nicobar Basin (AN Basin), nestled in the southeastern expanse of the Bay of Bengal, represents a frontier of ...

Since these islands are largely volcanic, they are also the source of the geologic term "volcanic arc". These arcs are the volcanic expression of subduction zones (more on that later). The Western ...

Fiji and Vanuatu started out as close neighbors and ended up 800 miles apart on separate sections of what had once been a continuous arc. Island arcs form where a plate of the oceanic crust sinks ...

Subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives underneath another, drive the world’s most devastating earthquakes and tsunamis. How do these danger zones come to be? A study in Geology presents ...

Tectonic plates can spread subduction like a contagion — jumping from one oceanic plate to another 'Pulsing, like a heartbeat': Rhythmic mantle plume rising beneath Ethiopia is creating a new ocean ...

Island arcs, which arise from volcanic activity along subduction zones where one tectonic plate dives beneath another, play a crucial role in the formation of the continental crust.

Island arcs form where a plate of the oceanic crust sinks beneath an adjacent plate in a process known as subduction, giving rise to a belt of volcanoes parallel to the trench where the descending ...