A curved chain of volcanic islands located at a tectonic plate margin, typically with a deep ocean trench on the convex side.
Example sentencesExamples
- One model predicts tectonic wedging of the Solomon island arc beneath the Ontong Java plateau.
- The basalt-chert succession points more probably to an island arc developed on oceanic crust.
- These units originated as an oceanic plateau possibly formed atop an island arc before being accreted onto the Cordilleran orogen.
- The source for the conglomerate clasts was probably an island arc that was uplifted in the Early Devonian.
- This may reflect that there has been some influx of material from a juvenile island arc.