Explain Why Ocean Floor Plates Subduct Beneath Continental Plates

As it moves away from the ridge it cools.

Explain why ocean floor plates subduct beneath continental plates.

Or the colliding plates may form a trench. If the subduction occurs between two oceanic plates it is the older plate that will move underneath the younger tectonic plate. Two parallel mountain ranges commonly develop above such a subduction zone a coastal range consisting of sedimentary strata and hard rock lifted out of the sea accretionary wedge and a volcanic range farther inland volcanic arc. The oceanic plate is subducted under the continental plate because oceanic crust is much more dense than continental crust.

This is accomplished at convergent plate boundaries also known as destructive plate boundaries where one plate descends at an angle that is is subducted beneath the other. Subduction zones form where a plate with thinner less buoyant oceanic crust descends beneath a plate with thicker more buoyant continental crust. Geologists explain that subduction occurs to oceanic plates because they are denser and cooler than continental plates. Oceanic lithosphere is formed hot and thin at mid ocean ridges and grows thick as more rock hardens underneath it.

When oceanic lithospheremeets continental lithosphere the continent always stays on top while the oceanic plate subducts. Because oceanic crust cools as it ages it eventually becomes denser than the underlying asthenosphere and so it has a tendency to subduct or dive under adjacent continental plates or younger sections of oceanic crust.