Is the formation of volcanoes from hotspots more common where the mantle plume u

ID: 210 • Letter: I

Question

Is the formation of volcanoes from hotspots more common where the mantle plume

underlies a continental or an oceanic tectonic plate? Why? Give an example of each.

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Continental example: ________________________________________________________________

Oceanic example: ___________________________________________________________________

Explanation / Answer

Volcanoes are not randomly distributed over the Earth's surface. Most are concentrated on the edges of continents, along island chains, or beneath the sea forming long mountain ranges. More than half of the world's active volcanoes above sea level encircle the Pacific Ocean to form the circum-Pacific "Ring of Fire." In the past 25 years, scientists have developed a theory -- called plate tectonics -- that explains the locations of volcanoes and their relationship to other large-scale geologic features.According to this theory, the Earth's surface is made up of a patchwork of about a dozen large plates that move relative to one another at speeds from less than one centimeter to about ten centimeters per year (about the speed at which fingernails grow). These rigid plates, whose average thickness is about 80 kilometers, are spreading apart, sliding past each other, or colliding with each other in slow motion on top of the Earth's hot, pliable interior. Volcanoes tend to form where plates collide or spread apart, but they can also grow in the middle of a plate, as for example the Hawaiian volcanoes.In the Pacific Northwest, the Juan de Fuca Plate plunges beneath the North American Plate. As the denser plate of oceanic crust if forced deep into the Earth's interior beneath the continental plate, a process known as subduction, it encounters high temperatures and pressures that partially melt solid rock. Some of this newly formed magma rises toward the Earth's surface to erupt, forming a CHAIN OF VOLCANOES above the subduction zone.Located in the middle of the Pacific Plate, the volcanoes of the Hawaiian Island chain are among the largest on Earth. The volcanoes stretch 2,500 kilometers across the north Pacific Ocean and become progressively older to the northwest. Formed initially above a relatively stationary "hot spot" in the Earth's interior, each volcano was rafted away from the hot spot as the Pacific Plate moves northwestward at about 9 centimeters per year. The island of Hawaii consists of the youngest volcanoes in the chain and is currently located over the hot spot.

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Is the formation of volcanoes from hotspots more common where the mantle plume u

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