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| Submarine volcanoes | |||||
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This cartoon shows the Pacific plate in east colliding
with Australian plate in west. |
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A consequence of this collision is subduction with the down going slab comprised of oceanic crust, or lithosphere, and a thin veneer of pelagic sediment. This causes extension behind the subduction zone which is represented by backarc basins forming behind the arc front. At certain depths, usually around 200 km, there is melting of the subducted materials which produces magmas that rise buoyantly to pond in overlying mantle wedge and periodically erupt on Earth's surface as lavas, forming arc volcanoes |
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