Subduction zone
A numerical simulation of the model created by Wouter Schellart and colleagues at the Australian National University shows a 2000-km subducting plate sinking through the Earth's upper mantle and into the lower mantle (grey). The arrows depict the flow in the upper mantle.
Using a similar simulation, Schellart's team found that a there is a particularly high strain around the centre of the boundary between the South American plate and the Nazca plate, which could be the reason why the Andes mountain range formed. (Credit: W. P. Schellart)