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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:
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]
Yellowstone National Park is a hot spot located within the center of a continent. Divergence of continental plates (i.e. the Atlantic Mid-Ocean ridge complex) creates magmas very near the surface of the Earth. A plume of heat from the mantle will melt rocks, creating a hot spot, which can be located at any depth in the crust.
Mantle convection is the very slow creep of Earth's solid silicate mantle as convection currents carry heat from the interior to the planet's surface. [2] [3] Mantle convection causes tectonic plates to move around the Earth's surface. [4] The Earth's lithosphere rides atop the asthenosphere, and the two form the components of the upper mantle ...
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 ...
The rest of the material is then carried upwards via chemical-induced buoyancy and contributes to the high levels of basalt found at the mid-ocean ridge. 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 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. [24] The convection of the Earth's mantle is a chaotic process (in the sense of fluid dynamics), which is
Hotspots are supplied by a magma source in the Earth's mantle called a mantle plume. Although originally attributed to a melting of subducted oceanic crust, recent evidence belies this connection. [27] The mechanism for plume formation remains a research topic.