Stagnant Slab: A Review

2009/01/30 by Yoshio Fukao, Masayuki Obayashi, Tomoeki Nakakuki +1 · 3 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #High-pressure geophysics and materials #earthquake and tectonic studies #Geological and Geochemical Analysis

paper · doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.36.031207.124224

openalex publication_date 2009/01/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

A stagnant slab is a subducted slab of oceanic lithosphere subhorizontally deflected above, across, or below the 660 km discontinuity. This phenomenon has now been widely recognized beneath subduction zones around the circum-Pacific and in the Mediterranean. Collaboration of seismic and electromagnetic observations, mineral physics measurements, and geodynamic modeling has begun to provide a consistent picture of stagnant slab.

Citations

• Subduction and the depth of convection in the Mediterranean mantle
• Preliminary reference Earth model
• Rheology of the Upper Mantle: A Synthesis

Cited by

• Dynamics of slab rollback and induced back-arc basin formation
• Geophysics of Chemical Heterogeneity in the Mantle
• Mantle convection [wikipedia]

Related

• Modeling the Dynamics of Subducting Slabs
• Continental versus oceanic subduction zones
• Slab break-off and subduction polarity reversal after collision can be very fast
• Earth’s gradients as the engine of plate tectonics and earthquakes
• Common depth of slab‐mantle decoupling: Reconciling diversity and uniformity of subduction zones