In
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
, a
hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active
volcanism3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
for a long period of time.
J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the idea in 1963 that volcanic chains like the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Excluding Midway, which is an unincorporated territory of the...
result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a "fixed" hot spot deep beneath the surface of the planet. Hotspots are thought to be caused by a narrow stream of
hotIn physics and thermodynamics, heat is the process of energy transfer from one body or system due to thermal contact, which in turn is defined as an energy transfer to a body in any other way than due to work performed on the body....
mantleThe mantle is a part of an astronomical object. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core. Earth's mantle is about 2,970 km thick rocky shell that...
convectingConvection is the movement of molecules within fluids . Convection is one of the major modes of heat transfer and mass transfer...
up from the Earth's
core-mantle boundaryThe core–mantle boundary lies between the Earth's silicate mantle and its liquid iron-nickel outer core. This boundary is located at approximately 2900 km of depth beneath the Earth's surface. The boundary is observed via the discontinuity in seismic wave velocities at that depth...
called a
mantle plumeA 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 shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcanic centers known as hotspots and probably also to have caused flood basalts...
, although some geologists prefer upper-mantle convection as a cause.
This in turn has re-raised the antipodal pair impact hypothesis, the idea that pairs of opposite hotspots may result from the impact of a large
meteorMETEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
.
Geologists have identified some 40–50 such hotspots around the globe, with
HawaiiThe Hawaii hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, and is one of the best known and most studied hotspots on Earth...
,
RéunionThe Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The hotspot is believed to have been active for over 65 million years...
,
YellowstoneThe Yellowstone hotspot, also referred to as the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone hotspot, is a volcanic hotspot responsible for large scale volcanism in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming, United States. It created the eastern Snake River Plain through a succession of caldera forming eruptions...
,
GalápagosGalápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the East Pacific Ocean responsible for the creation of the Galapagos Islands as well as three major aseismic ridge systems, Carnegie, Cocos and Malpelso which are on two tectonic plates. The hotspot is located near the Equator on the Nazca Plate not far...
, and
IcelandThe Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the island of Iceland.-Description:...
overlying the most currently active.
Most hotspot volcanoes are basaltic because they erupt through oceanic
lithosphereThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet.- Earth's lithosphere :...
(e.g., Hawaii,
TahitiTahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The island had a population of 178,133 inhabitants according to the August 2007 census. This makes it the most populous island of French Polynesia,...
).
In
geologyGeology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structure, physical properties, dynamics, and history of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed...
, a
hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active
volcanism3. Conduit
4. Base
5. Sill
6. Dike
7. Layers of ash emitted by the volcano
8. Flank| 9. Layers of lava emitted by the volcano
10. Throat
11. Parasitic cone
12. Lava flow
13. Vent
14. Crater
15...
for a long period of time.
Characteristics
J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the idea in 1963 that volcanic chains like the
Hawaiian IslandsThe Hawaiian Islands are an archipelago of 19 islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some 1,500 miles from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Kure Atoll. Excluding Midway, which is an unincorporated territory of the...
result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a "fixed" hot spot deep beneath the surface of the planet. Hotspots are thought to be caused by a narrow stream of
hotIn physics and thermodynamics, heat is the process of energy transfer from one body or system due to thermal contact, which in turn is defined as an energy transfer to a body in any other way than due to work performed on the body....
mantleThe mantle is a part of an astronomical object. The interior of the Earth, similar to the other terrestrial planets, is chemically divided into layers. The mantle is a highly viscous layer between the crust and the outer core. Earth's mantle is about 2,970 km thick rocky shell that...
convectingConvection is the movement of molecules within fluids . Convection is one of the major modes of heat transfer and mass transfer...
up from the Earth's
core-mantle boundaryThe core–mantle boundary lies between the Earth's silicate mantle and its liquid iron-nickel outer core. This boundary is located at approximately 2900 km of depth beneath the Earth's surface. The boundary is observed via the discontinuity in seismic wave velocities at that depth...
called a
mantle plumeA 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 shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcanic centers known as hotspots and probably also to have caused flood basalts...
, although some geologists prefer upper-mantle convection as a cause.
This in turn has re-raised the antipodal pair impact hypothesis, the idea that pairs of opposite hotspots may result from the impact of a large
meteorMETEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
.
Geologists have identified some 40–50 such hotspots around the globe, with
HawaiiThe Hawaii hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, and is one of the best known and most studied hotspots on Earth...
,
RéunionThe Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The hotspot is believed to have been active for over 65 million years...
,
YellowstoneThe Yellowstone hotspot, also referred to as the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone hotspot, is a volcanic hotspot responsible for large scale volcanism in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming, United States. It created the eastern Snake River Plain through a succession of caldera forming eruptions...
,
GalápagosGalápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the East Pacific Ocean responsible for the creation of the Galapagos Islands as well as three major aseismic ridge systems, Carnegie, Cocos and Malpelso which are on two tectonic plates. The hotspot is located near the Equator on the Nazca Plate not far...
, and
IcelandThe Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the island of Iceland.-Description:...
overlying the most currently active.
Most hotspot volcanoes are basaltic because they erupt through oceanic
lithosphereThe lithosphere is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet.- Earth's lithosphere :...
(e.g., Hawaii,
TahitiTahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. The island had a population of 178,133 inhabitants according to the August 2007 census. This makes it the most populous island of French Polynesia,...
). As a result, they are less explosive than subduction zone volcanoes, in which water is trapped under the overriding plate. Where hotspots occur under
continental crustThe continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called sial due to more felsic, or granitic, bulk composition, which lies in...
,
basaltBasalt is a common extrusive volcanic rock. It is usually grey to black and fine-grained due to rapid cooling of lava at the surface of a planet. It may be porphyritic containing larger crystals in a fine matrix, or vesicular, or frothy scoria. Unweathered basalt is black or grey.On Earth, most...
ic
magmaMagma [from Greek μάγμα, paste] is molten rock that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and may also exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and gas bubbles. Magma often collects in a magma chamber inside a volcano...
is trapped in the less dense continental crust, which is heated and melts to form
rhyoliteThis page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
s. These
rhyoliteThis page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
s can be quite hot and form violent eruptions, despite their low water content. For example, the
Yellowstone CalderaThe Yellowstone Caldera is the volcanic caldera in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The caldera is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, in which the vast majority of the park is contained...
was formed by some of the most powerful volcanic explosions in geologic history. However, when rhyolitic magma is completely erupted, it may eventually turn into basaltic magma because it is no longer trapped in the less dense continental crust. An example of this activity is the
Ilgachuz RangeThe Ilgachuz Range is a name given to an extinct shield volcano in British Columbia, Canada. It is not a mountain range in the normal sense, because it was formed as a single volcano that has been eroded for the past 5 million years. It lies on the Chilcotin Plateau, located some north-northwest...
in British Columbia, which was created by an early complex series of
trachyteTrachyte is an igneous, volcanic rock with an aphanitic to porphyritic texture. The mineral assemblage consists of essential alkali feldspar; relatively minor plagioclase and quartz or a feldspathoid such as nepheline may also be present....
and
rhyoliteThis page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
eruptions, and late extrusion of a sequence of basaltic lava flows.
Trail
As the continents and seafloor drift across the
mantle plumeA 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 shallow depths, they are thought to be the cause of volcanic centers known as hotspots and probably also to have caused flood basalts...
, "hotspot" volcanoes generally leave unmistakable evidence of their passage through seafloor or continental crust. In the case of the Hawaiian hotspot, the islands themselves are the remnant evidence of the movement of the seafloor over the hotspot in the Earth's mantle. The
YellowstoneYellowstone most often refers to Yellowstone National Park.Yellowstone may also refer to:* 2-8-8-4, a locomotive type nicknamed "Yellowstone"...
hotspot emerged in the
Columbia PlateauThe Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia River...
of the US
Pacific NorthwestThe Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. There are several partially overlapping definitions of the region, but they generally include the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and...
. The
Deccan TrapsThe Deccan Traps are a large igneous province located on the Deccan Plateau of west-central India and one of the largest volcanic features on Earth. They consist of multiple layers of solidified flood basalt that together are more than 2,000 m thick and cover an area of 500,000 km²...
of India are thought to be the result of the emergence of the hotspot currently under Réunion Island, off the coast of eastern Africa.
Geologists use hotspots to help track the movement of the Earth's plates. Such hotspots are so active that they often record step-by-step changes in the direction of the Earth's
magnetic polesPaleomagnetism is the study of the record of the Earth's magnetic field preserved in various magnetic minerals through time. The study of paleomagnetism has demonstrated that the Earth's magnetic field varies substantially in both orientation and intensity through time.A paleomagnetist is a...
. Thanks to
lavaLava is molten rock expelled by a volcano during eruption. This molten rock is formed in the interior of some planets, including Earth, and some of their satellites. When first erupted from a volcanic vent, lava is a liquid at temperatures from 700 °C to 1,200 °C...
flows from a series of eruptions in the
Columbia PlateauThe Columbia Plateau is a geologic and geographic region that lies across parts of the U.S. states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. It is a wide flood basalt plateau between the Cascade Range and the Rocky Mountains, cut through by the Columbia River...
, scientists now know that the reversal of magnetic poles takes about 5,000 years, fading until there is no detectable
magnetismIn physics, the term magnetism is used to describe how materials respond on the microscopic level to an applied magnetic field; to categorize the magnetic phase of a material. For example, the most well known form of magnetism is ferromagnetism such that some ferromagnetic materials produce their...
, then reforming in near-opposite directions.
Notable hotspot trails
- Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain
The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is composed of the Hawaiian Ridge, 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...
(Hawaii hotspotThe Hawaii hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, and is one of the best known and most studied hotspots on Earth...
)
- Louisville seamount chain
The Louisville seamount chain is an underwater chain of over 70 seamounts in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. One of the longest seamount chains on Earth, it stretches some 4,300 kilometres from the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge ENE to Tonga-Kermadec Trench, where it subducts under the Indo-Australian...
(Louisville hotspotThe Louisville hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the volcanic activity that has formed the Louisville seamount chain in the southern Pacific Ocean.-Location:...
)
- Walvis Ridge
Walvis Ridge is an ocean ridge in the southern Atlantic Ocean, extending for thousands of miles, off the coast of southwest Africa. Both it and the Rio Grande Rise originated from hotspot volcanism now occurring at the islands of Tristan da Cunha , 300 kilometres east of the crest of the...
(Tristan hotspotThe Tristan hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which is responsible for the volcanic activity which forms the volcanoes in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is thought to have formed the island of Tristan da Cunha and the Walvis Ridge on the African Plate....
)
- Kodiak-Bowie Seamount chain
The Kodiak-Bowie Seamount chain, also called the Pratt-Welker Seamount chain, is a seamount chain in southeastern Gulf of Alaska stretching from the Aleutian Trench in the north to Bowie Seamount, the youngest volcano in the chain, which lies west of the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia,...
(Bowie hotspotThe Bowie hotspot is a volcanic hotspot, located 180 kilometers west of the Queen Charlotte Islands in the Pacific Ocean.Almost all magma created by the hotspot has the composition of basalt, and so the volcanoes are constructed almost entirely of this igneous rock...
)
- Cobb-Eickelberg Seamount chain
The Cobb-Eickelberg Seamount chain is a seamount chain stretching from the Aleutian Trench in the north to Axial Seamount, the youngest volcano in the chain, which lies approximately 300 miles west of Cannon Beach, Oregon. The chain was created by the Cobb hotspot as the Pacific Plate drifted in a...
(Cobb hotspotThe Cobb hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located off the Oregon/Washington coast of the United States. The hotspot is at the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and has made the Cobb-Eickelberg Seamount chain...
)
- New England Seamount chain
The New England Seamount chain is an underwater chain of seamounts in the Atlantic Ocean stretching over 1,000 kilometers from the edge of the Georges Bank off the coast of Massachusetts. The chain consists of over twenty extinct volcanic peaks, many rising over 4,000 meters from the seabed...
(New England hotspotThe New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot, is a long-lived volcanic hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean. The hotspot's most recent eruptive center is the Great Meteor Seamount and probably created a short line of mid to late-Tertiary age seamounts on the African Plate but...
)
- Anahim Volcanic Belt
The Anahim Volcanic Belt is a long volcanic belt, stretching from just north of Vancouver Island to near Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada. The Anahim Volcanic Belt has had three main magmatic episodes: 15–13 Ma, 9–6 Ma, and 3–1 Ma. The volcanoes generally become younger eastward at a rate of to ...
(Anahim hotspotThe Anahim hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in central British Columbia, Canada. It is situated on the Interior Plateau, a large region that lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains to the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range to the west...
)
- Mackenzie dike swarm
The Mackenzie dike swarm, also called the Mackenzie dikes, form a large igneous province in the western Canadian Shield of Canada. It is one of more than three dozen dike swarms in various parts of the Canadian Shield and is the largest dike swarm known on Earth, more than 500 kilometers wide...
(Mackenzie hotspotThe Mackenzie hotspot was a hotspot that existed about 1,267 million years ago across Canada from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. It is responsible for the Mackenzie dike swarm, which is the largest dike swarm on Earth...
)
- Great Meteor hotspot track
The Great Meteor hotspot track, also referred to as the New England hotspot track, is a vast hotspot track in the Northern Hemisphere, stretching over from Nunavut in Northern Canada to the northern Atlantic Ocean...
(New England hotspotThe New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot, is a long-lived volcanic hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean. The hotspot's most recent eruptive center is the Great Meteor Seamount and probably created a short line of mid to late-Tertiary age seamounts on the African Plate but...
)
Possible hotspot trails
- Ninety East Ridge
The Ninety East Ridge is a linear, age-progressive seamount chain in the Indian Ocean and is named for its near-parallel strike along the 90th meridian...
(Kerguelen hotspotThe Kerguelen hotspot is a volcanic hotspot at the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Indian Ocean. The Kerguelen hotspot has produced basaltic lava for about 130 million years and has also produced the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands, and the Ninetyeast Ridge....
?)
- Chagos-Laccadive Ridge (Réunion hotspot
The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The hotspot is believed to have been active for over 65 million years...
?)
- Tuamoto
The Tuamotus or the Tuamotu Archipelago are a chain of atolls in French Polynesia and the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Western Europe.- Administrative divisions :The communes on the Tuamotus are: Anaa, Arutua, Fakarava, Fangatau,...
-LineThe Line Islands, or Equatorial Islands, is a group of eleven atolls and low coral islands in the central Pacific Ocean, south of the Hawaiian Islands...
Island chain (Easter hotspotThe Easter hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot created the Sala y Gómez Ridge which includes Easter Island and the Pukao Seamount which is at the ridge's young western edge....
)
- Austral
The Austral Islands are the southernmost group of islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the South Pacific. Geographically, the Austral Islands consist of two separate archipelagos. From northwest to southeast they are:...
-GilbertThe Gilbert Islands are a chain of 16 atolls and coral islands in the Pacific Ocean. They are the main part of the Republic of Kiribati and include Tarawa, the site of the country's capital and residence of almost half of the population.-Geography:The atolls and islands of the Gilbert...
-MarshallThe Marshall Islands , officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. This nation of roughly 62,000 people is located north of Nauru and...
chain (Macdonald hotspotThe Macdonald hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the southern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot was responsible for the formation of the Macdonald Seamount, and possibly the Austral-Cook Islands chain....
)
Comparison with island arc
Hotspot volcanoes should not be confused with
island arcAn island arc is a type of archipelago formed by plate tectonics as one oceanic tectonic plate subducts under another and produces magma. Island arcs that develop along the edges of a continent may be known as a volcanic arc, though most people find the distinction of little benefit.In the...
volcanoes. While each will appear as a string of volcanic islands, island arcs are formed by the
subductionIn geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundaries by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge. A subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates move towards one another and...
of converging tectonic plates. When one oceanic plate meets another, the denser plate is forced downward into a deep ocean trench. This plate, as it is subducted, releases water into the base of the over-riding plate, and this water causes some rock to melt. It is this that fuels a chain of volcanoes, such as the
Aleutian IslandsThe Aleutian Islands are a chain of more than 300 small volcanic islands forming part of the Aleutian Arc in the Northern Pacific Ocean, occupying an area of 6,821 sq mi and extending about westward from the Alaska Peninsula toward the Kamchatka Peninsula...
, near
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
.
List of hotspots
- Afar hotspot
- Anahim hotspot
The Anahim hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in central British Columbia, Canada. It is situated on the Interior Plateau, a large region that lies between the Cariboo and Monashee Mountains to the east, and the Hazelton Mountains, Coast Mountains and Cascade Range to the west...
(45)
- Ascension hotspot
- Azores hotspot
The Azores hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located at the Azores in the northern Atlantic Ocean. It has interactions with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which lies just west of the hotspot.-References:**...
(1)
- Balleny hotspot
The Balleny hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the Southern Ocean. The hotspot created the Balleny Islands, which forms a chain that extends for about 160 km in a northwest-southeast direction....
(2)
- Bermuda hotspot
The Bermuda hotspot is the supposed "hotspot"proposed to explain the Bermuda Rise , and also...
- Bouvet hotspot
- Bowie hotspot
The Bowie hotspot is a volcanic hotspot, located 180 kilometers west of the Queen Charlotte Islands in the Pacific Ocean.Almost all magma created by the hotspot has the composition of basalt, and so the volcanoes are constructed almost entirely of this igneous rock...
(3)
- Cameroon hotspot (17)
- Canary hotspot
The Canary hotspot is a volcanic hotspot believed to be located at the Canary Islands off the north-western coast of Africa, although alternative theories to explain the volcanism there exist. The Canary hotspot is believed to be underlain by a mantle plume that is relatively deep. It is believed...
(18)
- Cape Verde hotspot (19)
- Caroline hotspot (4)
- Cobb hotspot
The Cobb hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located off the Oregon/Washington coast of the United States. The hotspot is at the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and has made the Cobb-Eickelberg Seamount chain...
(5)
- Comoros hotspot (21)
- Crozet hotspot
- Darfur hotspot (6)
- Discovery hotspot
- East Australia hotspot
The East Australia hotspot is a volcanic hotspot that takes advantage of weak spots in the Indo-Australian Plate to feed magma to the volcanoes of Eastern Australia. It does not produce a single chain of volcanoes like the Hawaiian Islands...
(30)
- Easter hotspot
The Easter hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot created the Sala y Gómez Ridge which includes Easter Island and the Pukao Seamount which is at the ridge's young western edge....
(7)
- Eifel hotspot
The Eifel hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which is responsible for the volcanic activity which forms the volcanoes in Western Germany of northwestern Europe. It is thought to have formed the Eifel volcanic field....
(8)
- Fernando hotspot (9)
- Galápagos hotspot
Galápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the East Pacific Ocean responsible for the creation of the Galapagos Islands as well as three major aseismic ridge systems, Carnegie, Cocos and Malpelso which are on two tectonic plates. The hotspot is located near the Equator on the Nazca Plate not far...
(10)
- Gough hotspot
- Guadalupe hotspot (11)
- Hawaii hotspot
The Hawaii hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the creation of the Hawaiian Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, and is one of the best known and most studied hotspots on Earth...
(12)
- Heard hotspot
- Hoggar hotspot (13)
- Iceland hotspot
The Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the island of Iceland.-Description:...
(14)
- Jan Mayen hotspot
The Jan Mayen hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the volcanic activity that has formed the island of Jan Mayen in the northern Atlantic Ocean....
(15)
- Juan Fernández hotspot
The Juan Fernández hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot created the Juan Fernández Ridge which includes the Juan Fernández Archipelago and a long seamount chain that is being subducted in the Peru-Chile Trench at the site of Papudo giving origin to...
(16)
- Kerguelen hotspot
The Kerguelen hotspot is a volcanic hotspot at the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Indian Ocean. The Kerguelen hotspot has produced basaltic lava for about 130 million years and has also produced the Kerguelen Islands, Heard Island, the McDonald Islands, and the Ninetyeast Ridge....
(20)
- Lord Howe hotspot (22)
- Louisville hotspot
The Louisville hotspot is a volcanic hotspot responsible for the volcanic activity that has formed the Louisville seamount chain in the southern Pacific Ocean.-Location:...
(23)
- Macdonald hotspot
The Macdonald hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the southern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot was responsible for the formation of the Macdonald Seamount, and possibly the Austral-Cook Islands chain....
(24)
- Madeira hotspot
- Marion hotspot (25)
- Marquesas hotspot
The Marquesas hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the central Pacific Ocean. It is responsible for the Marquesas Islands, a group of 12 volcanic islands and are one of the five archipelagos of French Polynesia....
(26)
- Meteor hotspot (27)
- New England hotspot
The New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot, is a long-lived volcanic hotspot in the Atlantic Ocean. The hotspot's most recent eruptive center is the Great Meteor Seamount and probably created a short line of mid to late-Tertiary age seamounts on the African Plate but...
(28)
- Pitcairn hotspot
The Pitcairn hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the south-central Pacific Ocean. It is responsible for creating the Pitcairn Islands and two large seamounts called Adams and Bounty....
(31)
- Raton hotspot
The Raton hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which is responsible for the volcanic activity which forms the volcanoes in New Mexico, United States....
(32)
- Réunion hotspot
The Réunion hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which currently lies under the Island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. The hotspot is believed to have been active for over 65 million years...
(33)
- St. Helena hotspot
The Saint Helena hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is responsible for the island of St. Helena and the St. Helena Seamount chain. It is one the oldest known hotspots on Earth, which began to produce basaltic lava about 145 million years ago....
(34)
- St. Paul hotspot
- Samoa hotspot
The Samoa hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the south Pacific Ocean. It includes the Samoan Islands , and extends to the islands of Uvea or Wallis Island and Niulakita ....
(35)
- San Felix hotspot (36)
- Shona hotspot
- Society hotspot
The Society hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the Pacific Ocean, and is responsible for the creation of the Society Islands....
(Tahiti hotspot) (38)
- Socorro hotspot (37)
- Tasmanid hotspot (39)
- Tibesti hotspot (40)
- Trindade hotspot (41)
- Tristan hotspot
The Tristan hotspot is a volcanic hotspot which is responsible for the volcanic activity which forms the volcanoes in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is thought to have formed the island of Tristan da Cunha and the Walvis Ridge on the African Plate....
(42)
- Vema hotspot (43)
- Yellowstone hotspot
The Yellowstone hotspot, also referred to as the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone hotspot, is a volcanic hotspot responsible for large scale volcanism in Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming, United States. It created the eastern Snake River Plain through a succession of caldera forming eruptions...
(44)
External links