How does hotspots support the theory of plate tectonics?

A hot spot is an intensely hot area in the mantle below Earth’s crust. This heat causes the mantle in that region to melt. The molten magma rises up and breaks through the crust to form a volcano. While the hot spot stays in one place, rooted to its deep source of heat, the tectonic plate is slowly moving above it.

Do hotspots support tectonics?

Of approximately 125 hot spots thought to have been active over the past 10 million years most are located well away from plate boundaries.” It is the fact that hotspots are not close to plate boundaries that they have posed so much trouble for Plate Tectonic Theory, as they do not fit with the fact that most seismic …

What is a hotspot in plate tectonics examples?

In geology, hotspots (or hot spots) are volcanic locales thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot compared with the surrounding mantle. Examples include the Hawaii, Iceland and Yellowstone hotspots.

What is hot spot theory?

The dominant theory, framed by Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson in 1963, states that hot spot volcanoes are created by exceptionally hot areas fixed deep below the Earth’s mantle. This cooling causes the rock of the volcano and the tectonic plate to become more dense. Over time, the dense rock sinks and erodes.

How are hotspots useful for determining tectonic plate velocity?

Above the plumes, you get hot spots, where rock melts into magma. It allowed them to track the movement of tectonic plates, because as the plates moved over a stationary hot spot, they left a trail, or chain, of old volcanoes behind them.

How do Hotspots work geography?

A hot spot is an area on Earth that exists over a mantle plume. Hot spot volcanoes occur far from plate boundaries. Because the hot spot is caused by mantle plumes that exist below the tectonic plates, as the plates move, the hot spot does not, and may create a chain of volcanoes on the Earth’s surface.

What is the hotspot theory?

How do hot spots form islands?

Volcanoes can also form in the middle of a plate, where magma rises upward until it erupts on the seafloor, at what is called a “hot spot.” While the hot spot itself is fixed, the plate is moving. So, as the plate moved over the hot spot, the string of islands that make up the Hawaiian Island chain were formed.

How and when did our understanding of hotspots develop?

In 1963, J. Tuzo Wilson, the Canadian geophysicist who discovered transform faults, came up with an ingenious idea that became known as the “hotspot” theory. Wilson noted that in certain locations around the world, such as Hawaii, volcanism has been active for very long periods of time.

Why are hotspots stationary?

Hotspots are aptly named- they are spots of the Earth that are hot. There is evidence that hotspots can drift extremely slowly in the mantle, but hotspots are essentially stationary relative to the faster-moving tectonic plates. As a tectonic plate moves over a mantle hotspot, a chain of volcanoes is produced.

What are hot spots and what do they tell us about plate movement and the formation of islands?

Hotspots are plumes of magma that originate in the earth’s mantle and move outward through the crust. As a crustal tectonic plates move over hot spots mantle material upwells and erupts on the surface of the plate to form a volcano, seamount or volcanic island.

How do Hotspots determine the speed of plate movement?

Hot spots are areas where magma pushes up from deep Earth to form volcanoes—and can be used to determine how fast tectonic plates move. They concluded that the hot-spot groups move slowly enough to be used as a global reference frame for how plates move relative to the deep mantle.