How to Use subduction in a Sentence

subduction

noun
  • And the Tonga Trench is the liveliest subduction zone of all.
    Susan Casey, Outside Online, 22 Oct. 2019
  • What’s more, none of the belt’s quakes will be as large as those triggered by subduction zones.
    National Geographic, 11 Oct. 2019
  • The Mariana Trench, the deepest point in the world, occurs in a subduction zone.
    Umair Irfan, Vox, 11 May 2018
  • Meanwhile, cooling slabs of crust sink in subduction zones to the bottom of the mantle.
    Jenny Wu, Science | AAAS, 21 Jan. 2021
  • The larger the slab of lithosphere sinking at a subduction zone, the faster the plate moves, and the stronger the seismic activity.
    National Geographic, 13 Jan. 2023
  • The larger the slab of lithosphere sinking at a subduction zone, the faster the plate moves, and the stronger the seismic activity. Plates meet.
    National Geographic, 27 June 2019
  • In some subduction zones, sediments may be swept in along with the down-going plate.
    National Geographic, 23 June 2020
  • That type of process does not happen often in subduction zones.
    The Christian Science Monitor, 9 Sep. 2017
  • The average length of time between subduction zone quakes off the Oregon coast is 246 years.
    oregonlive, 27 Jan. 2023
  • This is a process called subduction, in which even tectonic and oceanic plates bend to the will of gravity.
    David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 10 June 2019
  • Drones reveal earthquake hazards hidden in the abyss There is no force on Earth quite like a subduction zone.
    Eva Frederick, Science | AAAS, 15 Nov. 2019
  • The trench is part of a subduction zone, where the Pacific tectonic plate slips beneath the Philippine Sea plate.
    National Geographic, 10 Apr. 2017
  • Miles below the surface of the ocean new crust is being added to the western side of the subduction zone, which is moving east and under the North American Plate.
    oregonlive, 1 Aug. 2021
  • When those plates collide and one slides beneath the other, water gets pulled into the subduction zone.
    Jill Kiedaisch, Popular Mechanics, 15 Nov. 2018
  • The Mariana Trench is a subduction zone, the spot where one tectonic plate slides under the other.
    Ashley Stimpson, Popular Mechanics, 12 Oct. 2022
  • As with carbon, subduction of the great continental and oceanic plates are thought to have brought water into the depths of the planet.
    National Geographic, 24 Oct. 2019
  • The problem is that there are so few seafloor seismometers to collect data in subduction zones.
    Jeffrey Marlow, The New Yorker, 26 July 2022
  • The shallow subduction zone might also encourage slow slip in a way that deeper zones do not, Fagereng says.
    Bypaul Voosen, science.org, 21 June 2023
  • Oregon sits about 70 miles from the Cascadia subduction zone, an offshore fault line that's overdue for a big quake.
    Elliot Njus, OregonLive.com, 9 May 2018
  • These ancient rocks appear to have been made by subduction, when two plates collide to thrust one of them deep into Earth's mantle.
    Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 20 Nov. 2023
  • While a quake on that fault is less likely than a subduction zone quake, a large temblor on a fault running right through Portland could be far more deadly.
    Kale Williams, OregonLive.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • There’s no evidence of subduction on Venus, which is why it can’t truly be said to have tectonic plates.
    Brianna Barbu, Discover Magazine, 12 July 2021
  • Most places where the Earth erupts are at subduction zones, where one tectonic plate is thrust beneath another.
    Author: Scott Wilson, Sarah Kaplan, Anchorage Daily News, 24 May 2018
  • The region has most of Earth's subduction zones, where oceanic plates slide under the lighter continental plates.
    Fox News, 24 June 2020
  • This area is the location of most of Earth's subduction zones, where oceanic plates slide under the lighter continental plates.
    Fox News, 30 Sep. 2020
  • But as in all subduction zones around the world, the movement builds frictional stresses between the two plates that result in frequent earthquakes.
    Seth Mydans, New York Times, 21 Nov. 2022
  • While that’s far less powerful than a magnitude 9 subduction zone megaquake, a quake of that size near any city in the state would be devastating.
    Sandi Doughton, The Seattle Times, 13 July 2019
  • In this zone, earthquakes and tsunamis are often caused by subduction – where one plate slides below another.
    Krystina Shveda, CNN, 7 Feb. 2023
  • The region is the location of most of Earth's subduction zones, where oceanic plates slide under the lighter continental plates.
    Travis Fedschun, Fox News, 22 Apr. 2018
  • Though the Iapetus Ocean died, due to a process called subduction in which dense, oceanic crust sinks back into the earth’s mantle, some pieces of pegmatite were thrust up and preserved for study for experts and amateurs alike.
    Carl R. Gold, Baltimore Sun, 13 July 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subduction.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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