What is the name of the earthquake zone where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another?

A subduction zone is an earthquake zone where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another.

Subduction usually involves dense oceanic lithosphere descending into the mantle beneath another oceanic plate or a continental plate. The descending slab can remain locked against the overriding plate, allowing enormous stress to accumulate. When part of the boundary slips, the result can be a great earthquake.

Subduction zones produce the world’s largest earthquakes, including the 1960 Chile earthquake and the 2004 Sumatra earthquake. They also commonly generate tsunamis because sudden vertical movement can displace the seafloor and water above it. Volcanic arcs form farther inland as water from the slab helps generate magma.

A subduction zone is a type of convergent plate boundary. Not every convergent boundary has subduction: two buoyant continental plates can collide without one easily sinking beneath the other.