In 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:
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