Which outcome occurs when a subducting slab dehydrates at intermediate depths (~100 km)?

💡 Explanation

When a subducting slab reaches intermediate depths, dehydration occurs because increasing pressure and temperature forces water out of hydrous minerals in the slab, which lowers the melting point of the overlying mantle wedge, leading to partial melting and volcanism. Therefore mantle wedge melting results, rather than trenches, thickening or transform faults which relate to different plate interactions.

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