Part 6. Present plate boundary seismic, volcanic and kinematic processes: Subduction-zone vortices

Abstract

Sinking slabs of lithosphere must push the asthenosphere if they pull the plates. The resulting flow in the asthenosphere then goes rapidly round the ends of a slab, pulling the lithosphere with it. The motion can be analyzed with the help of Hele?Shaw's mathematical analogy between viscous flow in a thin layer of fluid and classical two-dimensional irrotational flow.