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4. Where does subduction occur?
The most famous areas of subduction are located in the Pacific Ocean. The huge Pacific Plate is being created and is spreading from the southeast. Conversely it is being subducted and consumed along its western and northern sides. Along these margins are trenches and chains of volcanic islands. In fact, the margins of the Pacific are known as the 'Ring of Fire' because of the number of volcanoes to be found along its edges.
On the Pacific side of South America a small plate is sliding under South America producing the Andes mountains. The Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia erupted in 1985 melting its snow cover and producing a wall of mud and rocks that slid down its slope. At the foot of the mountain a town was buried in this mudflow killing 23,000 people. Further north in the US a small sliver of plate is disappearing beneath the American continent producing a chain of mountains called the Cascade Ranges. In 1980, one of these volcanoes (Mount St Helens, pictured below) exploded blowing the top and side off the mountain.
