Slab window
In geology, a slab window is a gap that forms in a subducted oceanic plate when a mid-ocean ridge meets with a subduction zone and plate divergence at the ridge and convergence at the subduction zone continue, causing the ridge to be subducted. Formation of a slab window produces an area where the crust of the over-riding plate is lacking a rigid lithospheric mantle component and thus is exposed to hot asthenospheric mantle (for a diagram of this, see the link below). This produces anomalous thermal, chemical and physical effects in the mantle that can dramatically change the over-riding plate by interrupting the established tectonic and magmatic regimes. In general, the data used to identify possible slab windows comes from seismic tomography and heat flow studies. Effects As a slab window develops, the mantle in that region becomes increasingly hot and dry. The decrease in hydration causes arc volcanism to diminish or stop entirely, as magma production in subduction zones generally results from hydration of the mantle wedge due to de-watering of the subducting slab. Slab-window magmatism may then replace this melting, and can be produced by multiple processes, including increased temperatures, mantle circulation producing interaction of supra- and sub-slab