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Where in the ocean does oceanic lithosphere sink into the mantle?
a. at continental shelves
b. at fracture zones
c. at abyssal plains
d. at mid-ocean ridges
e. at ocean trenches


Sagot :

The correct option is E.

The oceanic lithosphere sinks into the mantle in the ocean at ocean trenches.

Whenever the collision of two oceanic lithospheres takes place, one runs overlapping the other which makes the latter sink into the mantle along the position of a zone termed a subduction zone. The subducting lithosphere then downwardly bends for the formation of a very deep depression in the floor of the ocean called an oceanic trench. In the world, the deepest ocean is found along trenches.

The slabs of oceanic lithosphere sink at regions of subduction zones due to the subducted slab being denser than the asthenosphere which is underlying them. The gravity of the earth now tugs at the slab which makes the drawing of the rest of the plate towards the zone of subduction.

Since the young oceanic lithosphere is hot and buoyant to form a midocean ridge but it spreads away from the ridge and contracts. It is then able to sink into the underlying hot mantle. There occurs a deep ocean trench as a result of subduction where bending downward of oceanic plates takes place.

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