HOT SPOT NEW NOTES
(Geography Optional)
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of the Earth from where gases, ashes and molten rock material
magma escape to the ground. A volcano is called an active volcano if the materials mentioned are
being released or have been released out in the recent past. Pacific Ring of Fire has one of the
maximum numbers of active volcanoes in the world. Most of the volcanoes are found underwater.
Hotspot Volcanism
Volcanoes are found where tectonic plates are diverging or converging. The vast majority of
earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur near plate boundaries or margins, but there are some
exceptions. For example, the Hawaiian Islands, which are entirely of volcanic origin, have formed in
the middle of the Pacific Ocean more than 3,200 km from the nearest plate boundary.
Hotspot Volcanism refers to this intra-plate volcanism, which describes a volcanic activity that
occurs within tectonic plates. The position of these hotspots on the Earth's surface is independent
of tectonic plate boundaries.
Hotspot volcanism is unique because of its occurrence. It does not occur at the boundaries of
Earth s tectonic plates, where all major volcanic activity takes place. Instead, it occurs within the
plates at abnormally hot centres known as mantle plumes.
Hotspot Volcano
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What is a Hotspot?
NOTES
"Hotspot" refers to an area in the Earth s mantle from where hot plumes rise upward, forming
volcanoes on the overlying crust.
A hotspot is fed by a region deep within the Earth s mantle from where these mantle plumes
rise through the process of convection.
The heat from mantle plumes facilitates the melting of rock at the base of the lithosphere,
where the brittle, upper portion of the mantle meets the Earth s crust.
High heat and lower pressure at the base of the lithosphere (tectonic plate) facilitates melting
of the rock.
This molten material (rock), called magma, rises through cracks in the crust and erupts to form
volcanoes.
Hot-spots are relatively fixed in comparison to the plates
As the tectonic plate moves over the stationary hot spot, the volcanoes are rafted away and
new ones form in their place, resulting in chains of volcanoes, such as the Hawaiian Islands.
Mantle Plumes
Hotspot volcanism occurs at abnormally hot centres known as the mantle plume
A mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the Earth's mantle, first
proposed by Tuzo Wilson in 1963.
In 1971, geophysicist Jason Morgan further developed the hypothesis of mantle plumes. In
this hypothesis, convection in the mantle transports heat from the core to the Earth's surface
in thermal diapirs.
These mantle plumes are almost like lava lamps, with a rising bulbous head fed by a long,
narrow tail that originates in the mantle.
As the plume head reaches the lithosphere, it spreads into a mushroom shape that reaches
roughly 500 to 1000 kilometres in diameter. These features are called diapirs.
When the head of a plume encounters the base of the lithosphere, it undergoes widespread
decompression. As a result, melting takes place, and large volumes of basalt magma are
formed which, finds its way to the earth surface when an explosion takes place.
