Plate breakup common during subduction ?

[Widdekind]

Do oceanic slabs, subducting under continents, commonly fault & fragment, into (progressively smaller) pieces? i have learned about the following ancient oceanic plates, from the past ~200 Myr. Perhaps oceanic plates can "tear", faulting & fragmenting whilst sub-ducting under continents, whose "roots" are uneven, irregular, and penetrate down to varying depths? Perhaps if such "tears" work back up, and back out to sea, such "tears" become new spreading ridges, resulting in oceanic plate "breakup" ?

 

Farallon (subducting eastwards under N&SA)

• 
   
  
• Intermontane / Insular microplates
  
• Kula
  
  • Eshamy
    
  • Resurrection
    

  [*]Juan de Fuca

  [*]Rivera

  [*]Cocos

  [*]Nazca

 

Phoenix (subducting southwards under Antarctica)

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• Charcot