Slab window

This produces anomalous thermal, chemical and physical effects in the mantle that can dramatically change the over-riding plate by interrupting the established tectonic and magmatic regimes.

Slab-window magmatism may then replace this melting, and can be produced by multiple processes, including increased temperatures, mantle circulation producing interaction of supra- and sub-slab mantle, partial melting of subducted slab edges and extension in the upper plate.

[2] Mantle flowing upward through the slab window in order to compensate for the decreased lithospheric volume can also produce decompression melting.

Other influential factors include the rates of divergence and subduction as well as heterogeneities found within specific systems.

These effects include distinct fore-arc volcanism and extension in the plate which may be a contributing factor to the formation of the Basin and Range Province.