A subduction zone near Cascadia is unraveling piece by piece. The process offers a rare glimpse into how tectonic plates die and form new geological boundaries.
With unprecedented clarity, researchers have captured a rare geological event: a subduction zone—the point where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, actively fracturing. The finding, published in Science Advances, offers new insight into the dynamic processes shaping Earth’s crust and raises important questions about long-term earthquake risks in the Pacific Northwest.
Subduction zones are among Earth’s most powerful and influential geological systems. They propel continents across the globe, generate catastrophic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and recycle the planet’s crust back into the mantle.
However, these colossal systems don’t last forever. If subduction zones never ended, continents would continually collide and merge, eliminating oceans and erasing the planet’s geologic history. For decades, scientists have asked one key question: what exactly causes these immense systems to come to an end?
