Download Hot Spots

Hot Spots
The Hawaiian islands are a chain of volcanoes
in the Pacific Ocean.
Look at their location on the map below. Why is this
an unusual place for them to be located?
Hot spot volcanoes
In the animation above, why are the volcanoes to the left of the ‘hot spot’
extinct?
• Sometimes volcanoes appear in the
middle of plates, well away from plate
boundaries.
• In specific places, the heat within the
mantle is extreme. This “localised” source
of heat is called a HOT SPOT.
• This leads to persistent volcanic activity.
Plumes of magma rise and penetrate the
crust forming volcanoes.
• The lava tends to be BASIC (Basaltic) and
non-viscous (quite ‘runny’.
• Volcanoes occur in CHAINS. The hot spot
stays in the same and new volcanoes are
formed as the plate MOVES over it.
• The Hawaiian Islands are the best
example. Hot spots are generally
characterized by large outpourings of
basaltic lava for relatively long periods of
time.