Recycling of oceanic plate back into the Earth’s interiorat subduction zones is one of the key processes in Earth evolution.Volcanic arcs, which form above subduction zones, are the mostvisible manifestations of plate tectonics, the convection mechanismby which the Earth loses excess heat They are probably alsothe main location where new continental crust is formed, theso-called ‘subduction factoiy’ About 400f modernsubduction zones on Earth are intra-oceanic. These subductionsystems are generally simpler than those at continental marginsas they commonly have a shorter history of subduction and theirmagmas are not contaminated by ancient sialic crust. They aretherefore the optimum locations for studies of mantle processesand magmatic addition to the crust in subduction zones.
This volume contains a collection of papers that exploit therelative simplicity of intra-oceanic subduction systems to provideinsights into the tectonic, magmatic and hydrothermal processesassociated with subduction.
