A zone in the upper mantle, usually beneath an oceanic trench, where a cool, brittle plate, being subducted back into the mantle, gives rise to deep earthquakes.

A dipping zone containing earthquake hypocentres lying along the top of a subducting plate.

an inclined plane along which earthquake foci cluster at a subduction zone. The Benioff zone is believed to correspond to the position of the subducted slab of oceanic lithosphere.

A narrow zone, defined by earthquake foci, that is tens of kilometers thick dipping from the surface under the Earth's crust to depths of up to 700 kilometers. (Also

An inclined zone of earthquake activity caused by one lithospheric plate being subducted beneath another.

A dipping planar (flat) zone of earthquakes that is produced by the interaction of a downgoing oceanic crustal plate with a continental plate. These earthquakes can be produced by slip along the subduction thrust fault or by slip on faults within the downgoing plate as a result of bending and extension as the plate is pulled into the mantle. Also known as the Wadati-Benioff zone.