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The Bermuda hotspot is the supposed "hotspot
Hotspot (geology)

In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcano for a long period of time. J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the idea in 1963 that volcanic chains like the Hawaiian Islands result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a "fixed" hot spot deep beneath the surface of the planet....
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The Bermuda hotspot is the supposed "hotspot
Hotspot (geology)

In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcano for a long period of time. J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the idea in 1963 that volcanic chains like the Hawaiian Islands result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a "fixed" hot spot deep beneath the surface of the planet....
" (or mantle plume)proposed to explain the Bermuda Rise (a cluster of extinct volcanoes in the Atlantic Ocean, including the island of Bermuda
Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, it is situated around 1770 kilometres northeast of Miami, Florida, and 1350 kilometres south of Halifax Regional Municipality, Canada....
), and also invoked by Cox and Van Arsdale to explain the origin of the Mississippi Embayment
Mississippi embayment

The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the River delta of the Mississippi River Delta to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois....


and by Nunn to explain the Sabine Uplift (southwest of the Mississippi Embayment).

A hotspot origin for the Bermuda Rise has never been strongly supported, and has been largely shut out by a detailed and tightly argued paper by Vogt and Jung.

(See also shorter article at

)

Evidence cited against a hotspot origin include: 1) Lack of a chain of age-progressive seamounts, such as with the Hawaiian-Emperor
Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain

The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is composed of the Hawaiian Islands, consisting of the islands of the Hawaiian chain northwest to Kure Atoll, and the Emperor Seamounts, a vast underwater mountain region of islands and intervening seamounts, atolls, shallows, banks and reefs along a line trending southeast to northwest beneath the northern...
 or Great Meteor
Great Meteor Seamount

The Great Meteor Seamount is a gigantic guyot located south of the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the New England hotspot's most recent eruptive center and is one of the most completely investigated seamounts in the world....
 seamount chains. 2) Elongation of the Bermuda Rise at a right angle to the direction of plate motion. 3) Various problems with the ages of igneous rock attributed to the supposed hotspot and ensuing complications in the implied rate of hotspot motion.

Vogt and Jung attribute the origin of the Bermuda Rise to a reorganization of plate tectonics
Tectonic Plates

Tectonic Plates is a 1992 independent Canadian film directed by Peter Mettler. Mettler also wrote the screenplay based on the play by Robert Lepage....
 triggered by the closing of the Tethys Sea, but allow that until more data is obtained this is very speculative.

See also

  • Hotspot (geology)
    Hotspot (geology)

    In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active volcano for a long period of time. J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the idea in 1963 that volcanic chains like the Hawaiian Islands result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a "fixed" hot spot deep beneath the surface of the planet....
  • Mississippi embayment
    Mississippi embayment

    The Mississippi embayment is a physiographic feature in the south-central United States, part of the Mississippi Alluvial Plain. It is essentially a northward continuation of the River delta of the Mississippi River Delta to its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois....