«When crust from an
oceanic tectonic plate plunges beneath a continental tectonic plate, as it does beneath the Andean Plateau, it
brings water with it and partially melts the mantle, the layer below Earth's crust,» said Rice University's Jonathan Delph, co-author of the new study published online this week in Scientific Reports.
The country thus influences the flow of the major
water masses and results in shelf - edge currents and
oceanic eddies that interact with coastal
waters over the shelf,
bringing oceanic water into the coastal zone.