What are hotspots?

Hotspots are "hot spots" in the earth

• Hotspots are "hot spots" in the earth's mantle. There, rocks are melted locally due to strong temperature increases, a so-called. A melting zone with a diameter of a few hundred kilometers is created.
• These melting zones make themselves noticeable on the earth's surface through areas of volcanic activity.
• The associated volcanoes are located in the interior of the continental plates (Kilimanjaro) or oceanic plates (Hawaii), but also on the deep sea ridge (Iceland).
• Hotspots are fixedly bound to the earth's mantle, while the tectonic earth plates above them drift over them (keyword: plate tectonics). That is why they always leave volcanic eruptions in new places on the plate; a chain of volcanoes develops (with decreasing geological age). For example, the chain of the Hawaiian Islands is known, the southernmost of which is the only one that is still volcanic today. In a sense, the chain indicates the path that the Pacific plate has taken there.
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The emergence of hotspots - current scientific status

• In fact, the hotspots are still one of the scientific "problem children" of geology, because there is no consensus in the scientific community about their origin.


What is the asthenosphere?

The interior of the earth has differentiated into different layers, roughly into ...

• It is believed that hot magma rises from the interior of the earth under a hotspot. However, where this upward current (also called "plume") originates and what significance it has in the earth's mantle has not yet been clarified.
• For example, the rising molten rock could come from the lower earth's mantle, but also from the boundary between the earth's core and the earth's mantle.
• In addition, it is not clear why such thermal anomalies are present in the earth's mantle precisely at these points.