Island Arcs & Ocean Trenches

1. They form at convergent plate boundaries when one plate is subducted beneath another.

2. An island arc is a chain of volcanoes parallel to a mountain belt positioned in an arc shape in a map view.

3. The deepest trench is the Challenger Deep trench.

4. Japan lies along the Japan Trench and encloses the sea of Japan which seperates the island from the Asian continent.

5. The arc shape results from the geometry of plate movement across the spherical earth, and the convex side of the arc points toward the open ocean.

SOURCE: http://worldbuildingschool.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Island-Arc.jpg

SOURCE: http://www.yorku.ca/esse/veo/earth/image/1-10-17.JPG