Hotspots

1.2.1 Shield & composite volcanoes

1.2.3 Hot springs and geysers

Hotspots

  1. A hotspot is a volcanic region thought to be fed by underlying mantle that is anomalously hot, and may be near or far from plate boundaries
  2. They are hypothesised to be caused by hot mantle plumes that rise as thermal diapirs from the mantle-core boundary
  3. They are believed to be fixed as the plate moves over them, which is supported by places like the Hawaiian hotspot, which lies at the end of a chain of islands that become progressively older to the north-west