What is the difference between subduction zones and hot spots?
Subduction zones are areas in which oceanic plates are overridden by continental plates, forcing the heavier oceanic crust deep enough to be melted and recycled as second generation magma. Hot spots provide information about the rates and directions of movement of tectonic plates over geologic time scales.
Do hotspots cause ocean spreading?
Solid materials commonly expand as they heat up. The increase in volume of mantle material at a hotspot causes the Pacific Ocean floor to elevate as the Pacific Plate moves over the Hawaiian Hotspot.
Where are most hotspots located?
Most hot spots are located at mid-ocean ridges, but there are a few located in the middle of plates, like Hawaii and Yellowstone.
What is the most famous hot spot?
Hawaii
What islands were formed by hotspots?
The Hawaiian Islands were formed by such a hot spot occurring in the middle of the Pacific Plate. 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.
What is the theory of hotspots?
Jason Morgan of Princeton built on the hotspot theory by proposing that ridges and volcanoes could form when an oceanic plate passes over a hot mantle plume. At Hawaii, a stationary spot deep in the mantle persistently produces magma, lighter than surrounding rock, that erupts onto the surface and forms new land.
How do Hotspots work tectonics?
The heat that fuels the hot spot comes from very deep in the planet. 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.
How has the hot spot in the Yellowstone region given clues?
How has the hot spot in the Yellowstone region given the clues about the movement of the North American Plate? There has been lots of movement in the North American plate, there is evidence of this due to lots of volcanic activity and earthquakes in California.
Do hotspots last forever?
More recent scientific studies suggest that these hot spots may be found at more shallow depths in the Earth’s mantle and may migrate slowly over geologic time rather than stay fixed in the same spot. A volcano above a hot spot does not erupt forever.