  We use local Hamiltonian torus actions to degenerate a symplectic manifold to
a normal crossings symplectic variety in a smooth one-parameter family. This
construction, motivated in part by the Gross-Siebert and B. Parker's programs,
contains a multifold version of the usual (two-fold) symplectic cut
construction and in particular splits a symplectic manifold into several
symplectic manifolds containing normal crossings symplectic divisors with
shared irreducible components in one step.
