Hotspot (geology)
In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active vulcanism 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. Originally thought to be caused by a narrow stream of hot mantle convecting up from the mantle-core boundary called a mantle plume [1], the latest geological evidence is pointing to upper-mantle convection as a cause [2][3]. Geologists have identified some 40-50 such hotspots around the globe, with Hawaii, Réunion, Yellowstone, and Iceland overlying the most currently active.
List of hotspots
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Prominent_hotspots.png
Prominent_hotspots.png
World map showing the locations of selected prominent hotspots.
- Afar hotspot
- Amsterdam hotspot
- Ascension hotspot
- Azores hotspot
- Balleny hotspot
- Bermuda hotspot
- Bouvet hotspot
- Bowie hotspot
- Cameroon hotspot
- Canary hotspot
- Cape Verde hotspot
- Caroline hotspot
- Cobb hotspot
- Comoros hotspot
- Crozet hotspot
- Darfur hotspot
- Discovery hotspot
- East Australia hotspot
- Easter hotspot
- Eifel hotspot
- Fernando hotspot
- Galapagos hotspot
- Gough hotspot
- Guadelupe hotspot
- Hawaii hotspot
- Heard hotspot
- Hoggar hotspot
- Iceland hotspot
- Jan Mayen hotspot
- Juan Fernandez hotspot
- Kerguelen hotspot
- Lord Howe hotspot
- Louisvile hotspot
- Macdonald hotspot
- Marion hotspot
- Marquesas hotspot
- Meteor hotspot
- New England hotspot
- Pitcairn hotspot
- Raton hotspot
- Réunion hotspot
- St Helena hotspot
- St Paul hotspot
- Samoa hotspot
- San Felix hotspot
- Shona hotspot
- Society hotspot (Tahiti hotspot)
- Socorro hotspot
- Tasmanid hotspot
- Tibesti hotspot
- Trindade hotspot
- Tristan hotspot
- Vema hotspot
- Yellowstone hotspot