By subducting carboniferous materials, a release of carbon dioxide would emit from volcanoes.

Subducting oceanic slabs carry large amounts of water; this water lowers the melting temperature of the above mantle wedge.

The park's landscape has been shaped by plate tectonics, with the Pacific Plate subducting beneath the North American Plate.

It is unknown whether the seamount chain has been subducting under the Eurasian Plate, and whether the hotspot is older than Meiji Seamount, as any older semounts have since been destroyed by the plate margin.