How is a hotspot volcano formed?
A hot spot is a region deep within the Earth’s mantle from which heat rises through the process of convection. This heat facilitates the melting of rock. The melted rock, known as magma, often pushes through cracks in the crust to form volcanoes.
What causes the formation of hotspots?
The heat that fuels the hot spot comes from very deep in the planet. This heat causes the mantle in that region to melt. The molten magma rises up and breaks through the crust to form a volcano. While the hot spot stays in one place, rooted to its deep source of heat, the tectonic plate is slowly moving above it.
How do hot spots form islands?
Volcanoes can also form in the middle of a plate, where magma rises upward until it erupts on the seafloor, at what is called a “hot spot.” While the hot spot itself is fixed, the plate is moving. So, as the plate moved over the hot spot, the string of islands that make up the Hawaiian Island chain were formed.
How was Hualalai volcano formed?
Hualalai volcano last erupted during 1800-1801, when it produced lava flows from 5 fissure vents that reached the sea and buried Hawaiian villages. Hualalai began erupting about 800,000 years ago and breached the sea surface about 300,000 years ago.
How does magma form at hotspots?
A volcanic “hotspot” is an area in the mantle from which heat rises as a thermal plume from deep in the Earth. High heat and lower pressure at the base of the lithosphere (tectonic plate) facilitates melting of the rock. This melt, called magma, rises through cracks and erupts to form volcanoes.
Where are hotspots found?
Hot spots are found in the ocean, and on continents. Often the hot spot creates a chain of volcanoes, as a plate moves across a relatively stationary mantle plume. The best example of a hot spot volcanic chain is the Hawaiian Islands.
Where do hotspots usually occur?
A frequently-used hypothesis suggests that hotspots form over exceptionally hot regions in the mantle, which is the hot, flowing layer of the Earth beneath the crust. Mantle rock in those extra-hot regions is more buoyant than the surrounding rocks, so it rises through the mantle and crust to erupt at the surface.
What famous islands have hotspots created?
The Galápagos hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the East Pacific Ocean responsible for the creation of the Galápagos Islands as well as three major aseismic ridge systems, Carnegie, Cocos and Malpelo which are on two tectonic plates.
When was the last Kona lava flow?
| Hualālai | |
|---|---|
| Age of rock | Oldest-dated rock: 128,000 BP Estimated: over 300,000 years |
| Mountain type | Shield volcano |
| Volcanic arc/belt | Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain |
| Last eruption | 1800 to 1801 |
Who is Hualālai named after?
Hualālai volcano is ‘Wahi Pana’ – a very sacred place. At over 8,000 ft. tall, she stands watch over the town of Kailua-Kona, beautiful, proud, and mysterious. Legend says that she is named after the wife of the great Polynesian navigator Hawai’i Loa.
Where do hotspots occur?
mantle
A frequently-used hypothesis suggests that hotspots form over exceptionally hot regions in the mantle, which is the hot, flowing layer of the Earth beneath the crust. Mantle rock in those extra-hot regions is more buoyant than the surrounding rocks, so it rises through the mantle and crust to erupt at the surface.