Blog
Save
Email
Print
ShareIn geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcanism for a long period of time.
Hotspots were thought to be caused by a narrow stream of hot mantle convecting up from the mantle-core boundary called a mantle plume, the latest geological evidence is pointing to upper-mantle convection as a cause.
This in turn has re-raised the antipodal pair impact hypothesis, the idea that pairs of opposite hot spots may result from the impact of a large meteor.
Geologists have identified some 40-50 such hotspots around the globe, with Hawaii, Reunion, Yellowstone, Galapagos, and Iceland overlying the most currently active.
For more information about the topic Hotspot (geology), read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Mantle plume — A mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle. As the heads of mantle plumes can partly melt when they reach ... > read more
Yellowstone Caldera — The Yellowstone Caldera, sometimes known as the Yellowstone supervolcano, is a volcanically active region in Yellowstone National Park. It measures ... > read more
Shield volcano — A shield volcano is a wide volcano with shallowly-sloping sides. Shield volcanoes are formed by lava flows of low viscosity - lava that flows easily. ... > read more
Lithosphere — The lithosphere is the solid outermost shell of a rocky planet. On the Earth, the lithosphere includes the crust and the uppermost layer of the ... > read more
Conservation biology — Conservation biology is the protection and management of biodiversity that uses principles and experiences from the biological sciences, from natural ... > read more
Volcano — A volcano is an opening (or rupture) in the Earth's surface or crust, which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from deep below the ... > read more
Mid-ocean ridge — A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics. This uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when ... > read more
Plate tectonics — Plate tectonics is a theory of geology developed to explain the phenomenon of continental drift and is currently the theory accepted by the vast ... > read more
Crust (geology) — In geology, a crust is the outermost layer of a planet.
The crust of the Earth is composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and ... > read moreRecommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
more 