subduction: meaning, definition, pronunciation and examples

Overwhelmingly yes. While it can be used metaphorically (e.g., 'the subduction of an idea'), this is very rare and stylised. Its primary and almost exclusive use is in earth sciences.

A subduction zone is the area on the Earth's surface where two tectonic plates converge, and one plate is forced beneath the other into the mantle. These zones are associated with deep ocean trenches, powerful earthquakes, and volcanic arcs.

Typically, it is denser oceanic plates that subduct beneath lighter continental plates. However, in certain rare cases of continent-continent collision, one continental plate can be forced beneath another in a process called continental subduction or underthrusting.

Subduction is the downward movement of a plate into the mantle. Obduction is the opposite—it is the overthrusting of oceanic crust onto continental crust, a much rarer process that preserves sections of oceanic rock (ophiolites) on land.

The sideways and downward movement of the edge of a tectonic plate of the earth's crust into the mantle beneath another plate.

Subduction is usually technical, scientific, formal in register.

Subduction: in British English it is pronounced /səbˈdʌk.ʃən/, and in American English it is pronounced /səbˈdʌk.ʃən/. Tap the audio buttons above to hear it.