Obduction vs. Subduction — What's the Difference?

Obduction is a geological process whereby denser oceanic crust (and even upper mantle) is scraped off a descending ocean plate at a convergent plate boundary and thrust on top of an adjacent plate. When oceanic and continental plates converge, normally the denser oceanic crust sinks under the continental crust in the process of subduction.

Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the heavier plate dives beneath the second plate and sinks into the mantle.

A geologic process in which the oceanic crust of the edge of a tectonic plate is thrust over the continental crust of the edge of another, adjacent plate.

A geologic process in which one edge of one crustal plate is forced below the edge of another.

(obsolete) The act of drawing or laying over, as a covering.

The action of being pushed or drawn beneath another object.

An autopsy.

(geology) The process of one tectonic plate moving beneath another and sinking into the mantle at a convergent plate boundary.

(geology) The overthrusting of continental crust by oceanic crust or rocks from the mantle, such that the oceanic crust is thrust onto the continental crust, as occurs at a convergent plate boundary when the continental crust is caught in a subduction zone.

The act of subducting or taking away.

The act of drawing or laying over, as a covering.

Arithmetical subtraction.

A surjection between diffeological spaces such that the target is identified as the pushforward of the source.

The act of subducting or taking away.

Arithmetical subtraction.

A geological process in which one edge of a crustal plate is forced sideways and downward into the mantle below another plate