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However, paleomagnetic data show that mantle plumes can also be associated with Large Low Shear Velocity Provinces (LLSVPs) [7] [8] and do move relative to each other. [9] The current mantle plume theory is that material and energy from Earth's interior are exchanged with the surface crust in two distinct and largely independent convective flows:
The resulting motion forms small clusters of small plumes right above the core-mantle boundary that combine to form larger plumes and then contribute to superplumes. The Pacific and African LLSVP, in this scenario, are originally created by a discharge of heat from the core (4000 K) to the much colder mantle (2000 K); the recycled lithosphere ...
The theory focuses on the movements of mantle plumes under tectonic plates, viewing them as the major driving force of movements of (parts of) the Earth's crust. In its more modern form, conceived in the 1970s, it tries to reconcile in one single geodynamic model the horizontalistic concept of plate tectonics, and the verticalistic concepts of ...
The mantle's flow is driven by the descent of cold tectonic plates during subduction and the complementary ascent of mantle plumes of hot material from lower levels. The surface of the Earth reflects stretching, thickening and bending of the tectonic plates as they interact.
Mantle plumes were first proposed by J. Tuzo Wilson in 1963 [4] [non-primary source needed] and further developed by W. Jason Morgan in 1971. A mantle plume is posited to exist where hot rock nucleates [clarification needed] at the core-mantle boundary and rises through the Earth's mantle becoming a diapir in the Earth's crust. [5]
The formation and development of plumes in the early mantle contributed to triggering the lateral movement of crust across the Earth's surface. [18] The effect of upwelling mantle plumes on the lithosphere can be seen today through local depressions around hotspots such as Hawaii. The scale of this impact is much less than that exhibited in the ...
Diapirs also form in the Earth's mantle when a sufficient mass of hot, less dense magma assembles. Diapirism in the mantle is thought to be associated with the development of large igneous provinces and some mantle plumes. Explosive, hot volatile rich magma or volcanic eruptions are referred to generally as diatremes. Diatremes are not usually ...
The volcanism often attributed to deep mantle plumes is alternatively explained by passive extension of the crust, permitting magma to leak to the surface: the plate hypothesis. [23] The convection of the Earth's mantle is a chaotic process (in the sense of fluid dynamics), which is