Fashion Finder: Island Living

Holy cow! (literally)

Welcome back style sidekicks! I was searching over every inch of India for new inspiration when the wind blew me over to the east to one of their island territories, Barren Island in the Andaman Islands (12°16'44.53"N , 93°51'58.61"E). I had major deja-vu that I just must share with you! I saw an active volcano (remember Iceland anyone?) except this one was associated with the subduction of the Indian Plate beneath the Burmese Plate along the Andaman Trench. Crazy how these two totally different methods can both produce one thing, right? Well this eruption took place on 16th February 2013. The ash reached 20,000 ft. high and extended 120 miles southwest! Wow!

It is of course common knowledge that when it’s an oceanic-continental conversion the denser oceanic will sink, but what about an oceanic-oceanic like what takes place here? Long story short, oceanic plates are created at mid-ocean ridges where molten rock rises from the mantle (under surface), cools and solidifies. As new molten rock erupts at the mid-ocean ridge, the newly created oceanic plate moves away from the ridge where it was made. The further the plate gets from the ridge that created it, the colder and denser it gets. When two oceanic plates collide, the plate that is older, therefore colder and denser is the one that will sink. So anyways the dense, leading edge of the oceanic plate pulls the rest of the other plate into the flowing “asthenosphere” and a subduction zone is created. The place where the two plates intersect a deep trench forms. As it drives deeper and deeper the increasing temperature and pressure cause the plate to give off gases that will actually melt the mantel and create magma. This magma is lover density than the rock around in so it burns its way through to the top where it erupts out of the ocean.

Here’s a picture for all you visual learners: