Divergent double subduction (abbreviated to DDS, also called as outward dipping double-sided subduction) is a special type of subduction system where two parallel subduction zones with different directions are developed on the same oceanic plate. In conventional plate tectonics theory, an oceanic plate subducts under another plate and new oceanic crust is generated somewhere else, commonly along the other side of the same plates However, in divergent double subduction, the oceanic plate subducts on two sides. This results in the closure of ocean and arc-arc collision. This concept was first proposed and applied to the Lachlan fold belt in southern Australia. Since then, geologists have applied this model to other regions such as the Solonker Suture Zone of the Central Asian Orogenic belt, the Jiangnan Orogen, the Lhasa-Qiangtang collision zone and the Baker terrane boundary. Active examples of this system are 1) the Molucca Sea Collision Zone in Indonesia, in which the Molucca Sea plate subducts below the Eurasian plate and the Philippine Sea plate on two sides, and 2) the Adria microplate in the Central Mediterranean, subducting both on its western side (beneath the Apennines and Calabria) and on its eastern side (beneath the Dinarides). Note that the term divergent is used to describe one oceanic plate subducting in different directions on two opposite sides. It should not be confused with use of the same term in 'divergent plate boundary' which refers to a spreading center that separates two plates moving away from each other.