What are subduction zones?

Subduction zones are places where one piece of Earth’s crust slides under another, like a plate sliding under a mat on the floor.

Imagine you have two big, heavy blankets on the floor, they're like Earth's plates. Now, one blanket starts to move slowly and slips underneath the other one. That movement is happening deep underground, where the Earth’s crust meets the hot, soft layer beneath it, called the mantle.

When one plate goes under another, it can cause big events like earthquakes or even volcanoes. It's like when you push your hand under a blanket, if you push too hard, it might make a little shake or even lift the blanket up.

Sometimes, the plate that slips underneath gets squeezed and heated, melting into magma, which can rise to the surface as lava from a volcano.

These zones are found all over the world, like near Japan or the Andes mountains, places where Earth’s plates are always moving and bumping into each other.