DEFINITION OF HOT SPOT

A center of volcanic and plutonic activity that is

not associated with an arc and generally not associated with

an extensional boundary. Most hot spots are 60–125 miles

(100–200 km) across and are located in plate interiors. A few,

such as Iceland, are found on oceanic ridges and are identified

on the basis of unusually large amounts of volcanism on the

ridge. Approximately 200 hot spots are known, and many

others have been proposed but their origin is uncertain.

Hot spots are thought to be the surface expression of

mantle plumes that rise from deep in the Earth’s mantle, perhaps

as deep as the core/mantle boundary. As the plumes rise

to the base of the lithosphere they expand into huge, even

thousand-kilometer-wide plume heads, parts of which partially

melt the base of the lithosphere and rise as magmas in hot

spots in plate interiors.

See also CONVECTION AND THE EARTH’S MANTLE; MANTLE

PLUMES.

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