Hotspots and mantle plumes
Puntos calientes y plumas del manto
- Date
- 1963 / 1971 · confidence high
- Place
- Hawaiian Islands, United States
- Credited to
- J. Tuzo Wilson (1963), Jason Morgan (plumes, 1971)
- People
- 👤 John Tuzo Wilson1908–1993👤 William Jason Morgan1935–2023
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Wilson explained the Hawaii-Emperor island chain as the trail of a plate moving over a fixed source of magma; Morgan proposed that these sources are plumes rising from the deep mantle. Hotspots provide a reference for measuring plate motion.
Coordinates of Kīlauea volcano, above the Hawaiian hotspot. The existence of deep plumes remains debated among part of the community.
What it led to
- Measurement of absolute plate velocity
- Explanation of Iceland, Yellowstone and large igneous provinces
- Debate over the existence of deep mantle plumes
Built on
Made possible
- Seismic tomography of mantle plumes