Download Hot Spots

Hot
Spots
What are they?
• Hot spots are fixed places where
hot molten magma rises up through
the crust to reach the surface,
sometimes in the middle of plates.
• When a hot spot forms in the
middle of a plate, it remains
constant, as the plate continues to
move over it.
• The result is a trail of volcanoes
left behind, with older volcanoes
moving away from the hot spot, and
newer ones forming over top of the
hot spot.
Types of Hotspots
• Oceanic
 Hawaiian Islands
• Continental
 Yellowstone National Park
Hawaiian
Islands
(Volcanoes)
How were they created?
• The Hawaiian islands were produced by
a hot spot occurring in the middle the
Pacific Plate.
• The hot spot is presently under the Big
Island of Hawaii.
• Each island is made up of at least one
primary volcano, although many islands
are composites of more than one.
• These volcanoes are currently both active
and inactive.
• The Hawaiian Islands are the projecting
tops of the biggest mountain range in the
world.
Click here for a video.
Lava entering the Pacific Ocean
Hawaii Facts
• Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the
union in 1959.
• At 800,000 years the Big Island is the
youngest of the island chain, however, first
discovered.
• Kilauea volcano is the world's most active.
• Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the
world (measured from its base).
• Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee.
• There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian
alphabet.
• Houses the world's biggest telescope and
more scientific observatories than anywhere
else in the world.
All About Hawaii
Yellowstone NP, Wyoming
What’s going on under Yellowstone?
• Yellowstone lies over a hotspot where
magma rises towards the surface.
• While the Yellowstone hotspot is now
under the Yellowstone Plateau, it
previously helped create the eastern
Snake River Plain (to the west of
Yellowstone) through a series of huge
volcanic eruptions.
• The North American Plate is moving
west-southwest over the stationary
hotspot in the Earth's mantle.
Yellowstone’s Official Webpage
Click here for a video.
Yellowstone Facts
Click here for a
different video.
• World’s first national park, 1872
• An active volcano waiting to erupt
• Approximately 1000 - 3000
earthquakes annually
• Approximately 10,000 thermal features
• More than 300 geysers
• One of the world's largest calderas,
measuring 45 by 30 miles (72 by 48 km)
• Thousands of petrified trees in
northern Yellowstone
• Approximately 290 waterfalls, 15 ft. or
higher, flowing year-round