Related words. 1  poke noun. 2  poke around phrasal verb. 3  poke fun (at) phrase.  a pig in a poke 1  phrase. poke a hole in something phrase.  poke/shove/stick your nose into something 1  phrase. poke about phrasal verb at poke around.  poke fun at phrase at make fun of.
Because the subduction zone (which is also the plate boundary) is generally an arc-shape, geologists named those volcanoes volcanic arcs. A volcanic arc built on continental crust is called a continental arc; when built on oceanic crust the volcanoes form an island arc. Volcanic arcs are made of an arc-shaped chain of volcanoes. 2  The position of which could be continental or mid-ocean. 3  While an island arc must be offshore and does not necessarily be volcanic (e.g. Hellenic arc).
The first image here is a sketch of an oceanic plate subducting beneath a continental plate at a collisional plate boundary. The oceanic plate typically sinks at a fairly high angle (somewhat exaggerated here). A volcanic arc grows above the subducting plate. The second shows the plate tectonic setting during the growth of the Laramide orogeny. The angle of the subducting plate is significantly flatter, moving the focus of melting and mountain building muchy farther inland than is normally expected.