subduct

American  

[suhb-duhkt] / səbˈdʌkt /

verb (used with object)

1. to take away; subtract.

2. to withdraw; remove.

3. Geology. (of acrustal plate ) to collide with (a denser plate), drawing it down and overriding it, along the juncture of the two plates.

---

verb (used without object)

1. Geology. (of acrustal plate ) to slide beneath a less dense plate as a consequence of the two plates’ colliding.

subduct British  

/ səbˈdʌkt /

verb

1. physiol to draw or turn (the eye, etc) downwards

2. rare to take away; deduct

---

Other Word Forms

• unsubducted adjective

Etymology

Origin of subduct

First recorded in 1550–60; from Latin subductus, past participle of subdūcere “to draw up, withdraw”

Example Sentences

Rock from the subducting plates turns to magma when it reaches the mantle, creating hot spots that, over millennia, melt through the crust and break through as lava, forming volcanoes.

From Literature

These can provide information as to whether the carbon originates from a plant or from the atmosphere or was released from a subducted rock.

From Science Daily

While we can see a subducted plate in the mantle underneath it, almost no further movement is currently happening.

From Science Daily

The zone where the islands switched from being subducted to being accreted would have been under incredible strain and been ripped apart.

From Science Daily

Continental tectonic plates, unlike their dense oceanic cousins, are thick and buoyant, so they don’t easily sink, or subduct, into the mantle during collisions.

From Science Magazine