Which mechanism causes strong regional uplift during flat-slab subduction?

💡 Explanation

When a subducting plate travels horizontally (flat-slab subduction), lithospheric compression increases because the overriding plate experiences greater horizontal stress, causing ductile thickening and regional uplift. Therefore lithospheric compression results, rather than alternate mechanisms related to surface buckling, melting, or asthenospheric drag, which are less directly driven by lithospheric stresses.

• Which landform development mechanism explains the sorting of sediment grain sizes within an alluvial fan?
• Which atmospheric effect propagates eastward during moderate El Niño events across the Pacific?
• Which mechanism causes mass wasting on steep slopes underlain by thawing permafrost?
• Which process primarily governs crustal deformation along oceanic transform fault boundaries?
• Which outcome occurs when strain exceeds fracture strength along transform plate boundaries?
• Which process causes lateral stream deflection when strong prevailing winds encounter an advancing glacier?