GEO 103 Lecture 5: Hot Spots
Document Summary
Lecture 5 - hot spots and mantle plumes. Hot spots are locations of stationary magma columns originating from deep within the mantle such as in hawaii and iceland. Mantle plumes remain stationary (some evidence of minor movements) As plates move, hot spots leave trails of older and sometimes extinct volcanoes. Aseismic ridge (the trail that mantle plumes leave behind as plates move over it). These ridges are commonly associated with seismic motion. Records movement of plates with the formation of ridges and volcanoes which tells us the age of the formations and the direction the plate is moving. The farther the formations are from the hot spot, the older they become. Determines the age of sediment above any portion of oceanic crust. This measures the distance of magnetic anomaly from the ridge. You can get the rate of motion by dividing by the age of the anomaly. Used to determine the plate and continent positions at time of an anomaly.
