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GCSE Geography · key term
A long, narrow, deep depression in the ocean floor formed where a tectonic plate bends down into a subduction zone.
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Specification 3.1.1 · Component 1
Revise: Plate Processes, Boundaries and HotspotsAs the oceanic plate bends downwards, it creates a long, deep ocean trench beside the overriding plate. The trench marks the beginning of the subduction zone; it is not a gap created by plates pulling apart. The Mariana Trench is another example of a subduction trench, formed where one oceanic plate descends beneath another.
In an explanation, connect plate movement to the process and then the landform: plates converge → subduction → an ocean trench forms.
Distinguish an ocean trench, where a plate bends downwards, from a rift valley, where land sinks as the crust is pulled apart.
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