Hotspots

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  • Hotspots
    • a small area of the Earth's crust where a usually high heat flow is associated with volcanic activity far from plate boundaries
    • Mantle plume: Hot rock/ magma from the mantle rises up from deep within the earth
    • the mantle plume causes volcanic activity as the plate moves over the stationary plume, the islands lose their source of magma
      • as the plume is concentrated over an area, the continuous eruptions create an island which will eventually emerge over time.
      • once the source is lost, the island will eventually start to erode and may submerge once more
        • they may form little sea mounds called Guyotes which are flat topped mounds pertruding from the sea
    • Hawaiian Islands
      • extend for about 24,000km which get progressively older fom the SE to NW
      • Pacific Plate
      • multiple thin basaltic lava flows, gently sloping sides- shield volcanoes
      • created 3,200km away from the plate margin
      • new island detected called Lo'ihi and is 975m below sea level and is estimated to emerge in the next 10,000-100,000 years
      • Kilaeau and Mauna Loa on Big Island are these shield volcanoes

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