:*: Do the islands and seamounts lie on along the same plate boundary?
:*: Also, what does the distribution of the islands and seamounts suggest about the direction of plate motion over the past 65 million years?
:*: Please help me, my teacher didn't allow us to take the map of the Hawaiian Island-Emperor Seamount Chain home with us so I need some help. Thank you very much!
2006-12-22 03:19:43 · 4 answers · asked by ♥::♥::♥ 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
These islands formed by plate movement overtop a geological feature called a "hotspot." This is a powerful upwelling of magma that comes very close to the earth's surface and punches through with volcanic activity regardless of plate tectonics.
However, the plates still move over the earth's hotspots. Given that the newest portion of the Hawaiian Islands is the southeast island of Hawaii, it suggest plate movement in the opposite direction: northwest. And, in fact, go northwest and you pass along the entire Emperor seamount chain. (Seamount is a more general term for the mounts whether they rise above the surface as islands or not, though is often used for just those that remain submerged.)
There are quite a few hotspots around the world. The one mattering most to the US is under Yellowstone. Someday it will blow and when it does chunks of rock will be blown as far as Ohio and the earth will solve global warming for some time to come. When? Intriguingly, some of the geysers are speeding up their eruption cycles already...
2006-12-22 05:05:43 · answer #1 · answered by roynburton 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain
2016-11-07 22:38:06 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Emperor Seamount Chain
2016-12-12 05:05:30 · answer #3 · answered by youngerman 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
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RE:
How did the seamounts and islands in the Hawaiian Island-Emperor Seamount Chain form?
:*: Do the islands and seamounts lie on along the same plate boundary?
:*: Also, what does the distribution of the islands and seamounts suggest about the direction of plate motion over the past 65 million years?
:*: Please help me, my teacher didn't allow us to take the map of the...
2015-08-19 08:47:19 · answer #4 · answered by Englebert 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Although Roy's answer is a commonly accepted theory there is a community of Geoscients that don't subscribe to hotspots. They feel (I think) that the oceanic crust is splitting and allowing magma to rise to the surface as lava. I guess that as the magma flows it "heals" the older part as the crack propagates. Although I don't agree with this idea it does have its supporters. There is a bend in the chain and this is probably due to a shifting with the completion of the subduction of an oceanic plate.
2006-12-22 05:17:57 · answer #5 · answered by Amphibolite 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The first one is more acceptable. There is proof that the plate is moving, not splitting. The Islands are all formed in the same spot, but the plate moves and that is why they "chain" form.
2006-12-22 07:52:24 · answer #6 · answered by Kelly M 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋