Island Arc - Tectonic Formation

Tectonic Formation

Following is a brief description of a subduction zone and its relation with volcanism, one of the more common causes of (volcanic) island arcs (for more information, see the Page covering subduction):

In the subduction zone, loss of volatiles from the subducted slab induces partial melting of the overriding mantle. This process, called flux melting, generates low-density calc-alkaline magma that buoyantly rises to intrude and be extruded through the lithosphere of the overriding plate. The resulting volcano chain has the shape of an arc parallel to the convergent plate boundary and convex toward the subducting plate. One of the theories to explain the arc shape views this as a consequence of the geometry of the spherical plate crumpling along a line on a spherical surface, but only the more broadly shaped arcs can be explained in this way.

On the subducting side of the island arc is a deep and narrow oceanic trench, which is the trace at the Earth’s surface of the boundary between the downgoing and overriding plates. This trench is created by the gravitational pull of the relatively dense subducting plate pulling the leading edge of the plate downward. Multiple earthquakes occur along this subduction boundary with the seismic hypocenters located at increasing depth under the island arc: these quakes define the Wadati-Benioff zones.

Ocean basins that are being reduced by subduction are called 'remnant oceans' as they will slowly be shrunken out of existence and crushed in the subsequent orogenic collision. This process has happened repeatedly in the geologic history of the Earth.