Blog
Save
Email
Print
ShareA mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle.
See also:
As the heads of mantle plumes can partly melt when they reach shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcanic centers known as hotspots and probably also to have caused flood basalts.
It is a secondary way that Earth loses heat, much less important in this regard than is heat loss at plate margins.
Some scientists think that plate tectonics cools the mantle, and mantle plumes cool the core.
Two of the most well known locations that fit the mantle plume theory are Hawaii and Iceland as both have volcanic activity.
For more information about the topic Mantle plume, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Hotspot (geology) — 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 ... > 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
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
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 more
Igneous rock — Igneous rocks are formed when molten rock (magma) cools and solidifies, with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive ... > read more
Continental crust — The continental crust is the layer of granitic, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to ... > read more
Basalt rock — Basalt is a common gray to black volcanic rock. It is usually fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava on the Earth's surface. It may be porphyritic ... > 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
Pangaea — Pangaea or Pangea is the name given to the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, before the process of plate tectonics ... > read more
Atmospheric dispersion modeling — Atmospheric dispersion modeling is the mathematical simulation of how air pollutants disperse in the ambient atmosphere. It is performed with ... > read moreRecommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools:
more 