What is mantle plume and how does it work? Mantle plume is an upwelling of abnormally hot rock within the earth's mantle which carries heat upward in narrow, rising columns, driven by heat exchange across the core-mantle boundary.
What is the function of a mantle plume?
A mantle plume is a large column of hot rock rising through the mantle. The heat from the plume causes rocks in the lower lithosphere to melt.
Who discovered mantle plumes?
Some such volcanic regions lie far from tectonic plate boundaries, while others represent unusually large-volume volcanism near plate boundaries. Mantle plumes were first proposed by J. Tuzo Wilson in 1963 and further developed by W. Jason Morgan in 1971 and 1972.
Why do deep mantle plumes appear deflected by hotspots?
Deep mantle plumes often appear deflected by large-scale mantle flow, resulting in hotspot motions required to resolve past tectonic plate motions. Future research requires improvements in resolution of seismic tomography to better visualize deep mantle plume structures at smaller than 100-km scales.
How do mantle plumes affect sea level change?
Where the presence of strong or weak mantle plumes causes large or small hotspots swells 144 and regional modifications in mantle viscosity profiles, the pulsating behaviour of mantle plumes might cause substantial variations in local sea level that can change ocean circulation patterns and deep-sea sedimentation accumulation rates 148.
How do mantle plumes form volcanoes?
Mantle plumes can be emitted from the core-mantle boundary region to reach the Earth's crust. Because of the lateral displacement of the tectonic plates at the surface, the mantle plumes can create a series of aligned hot-spot volcanoes. A mid-ocean ridge and a subducted plate are also shown.
How does a mantle plume create an island?
As the plume rises towards the base of the lithosphere, the reduction in pressure allows partial melting of the mantle material within the plume to form basaltic magma. The magma melts its way through the oceanic crust and erupts onto the ocean floor to build up an active volcanic island.
How do mantle plumes move plates?
Plumes form in the deep interior of the planet. They rise up to the lithosphere, bringing with them hot partially molten mantle material that causes the lithosphere to weaken and deform. Halted by the resistance of the hard lithosphere, the material begins to spread, taking on a mushroom-like shape.
What causes magma plumes?
Magma plumes are areas of hot, upwelling mantle. Magma generated by the hot spot rises through the rigid plates of the lithosphere and produces active low viscosity volcanoes at the Earth's surface.
Why do mantle plumes happen?
A mantle plume is an area under the rocky outer layer of Earth, called the crust, where magma is hotter than surrounding magma. Heat from this extra hot magma causes melting and thinning of the rocky crust, which leads to widespread volcanic activity on Earth's surface above the plume.
What drives mantle plume?
the mantle plume, driven by heat exchange across the core-mantle boundary carrying heat upward in a narrow, rising column, and postulated to be independent of plate motions.
What causes magma to rise upward in a mantle plume?
The magma is denser than the surrounding material. C. The magma is pulled upward by the air pressure.
What is mantle plume in science?
A mantle plume is a buoyant mass of material in the mantle, which rises because of its buoyancy. The existence of mantle plumes in Earth was first suggested by J. Tuzo Wilson (1963) as an explanation of oceanic island chains, such as the Hawaiian-Emperor chain, which change progressively in age along the chain (Fig.
Are mantle plumes only under oceanic crust?
Hot mantle rock that rises toward the earth's surface in a narrow column is called a mantle plume. Plumes can be located beneath continental or oceanic crust or along plate boundaries.
What is a mantle plume and what role it plays in plate tectonics?
Role of mantle plume in plate tectonics: The narrow conduits of deep-mantle material rise through the solid mantle before spreading out laterally in the upper asthenosphere. From there, they cause the lithosphere to swell and shear as the heat from the plume increases the temperature of lower lithosphere.
Where is the largest mantle plume?
core-mantle boundaryThe largest (and most persistent) mantle plumes are presumed to form where a large volume of mantle rock is heated at the core-mantle boundary, about 1,800 miles below the surface, although smaller plumes may originate elsewhere within the mantle.
What are mantle plumes quizlet?
Mantle plume. A stationary area of high heat flow in the mantle, which rises from great depths and produces magma that feeds hot spot volcanoes.
How were the Hawaiian Islands formed?
The Hawaiian Islands were formed by such a hot spot occurring in the middle of the Pacific Plate. While the hot spot itself is fixed, the plate is moving. So, as the plate moved over the hot spot, the string of islands that make up the Hawaiian Island chain were formed.
How do mantle plumes create flood basalts and hot spots?
Mantle plumes (few hundred kilometres in diameter) and rise slowly towards the upper mantle. When a plume head encounters the base of the lithosphere, it flattens out and undergoes widespread decompression melting to form large volumes of basalt magma.
What is the relationship between this mantle plume and the Iceland hotspot?
The present-day seismic structure of the mantle under the North Atlantic Ocean indicates that the Iceland hotspot represents the surface expression of a deep mantle plume, which is thought to have erupted in the North At- lantic domain during the Palaeocene.
What is the Iceland plume?
The Iceland plume is a postulated upwelling of anomalously hot rock in the Earth's mantle beneath Iceland. Its origin is thought to lie deep in the mantle, perhaps at the boundary between the core and the mantle at approximately 2,880 km depth. Opinions differ as to whether seismic studies have imaged such a structure.
How does a mantle plume work?
A mantle plume is created through convection. A large amount of heat is transferred to the mantle from the core, making it more buoyant. Then the m...
Where are mantle plumes?
Mantle plumes are plumes of hot rock that rise from the core-mantle boundary to the top of the asthenosphere. The rock in the plume is significantl...
What is a mantle plume and why are they important?
A mantle plume is a column of hot molten rock in the mantle. It rises to the top of the lithosphere, creating stationary hot spots on the Earth's s...
What is the scientific definition of plume?
A plume is a narrow thermal feature that rises through the surrounding material due to a difference in temperature. The plume is hotter than its su...
What Is a Mantle Plume?
A mantle plume is a large column of hot rock rising through the mantle. The heat from the plume causes rocks in the lower lithosphere to melt. The largest (and most persistent) mantle plumes are presumed to form where a large volume of mantle rock is heated at the core-mantle boundary, about 1,800 miles below the surface, although smaller plumes may originate elsewhere within the mantle. Once the temperature increases sufficiently to lower the rock density, a column of the hotter-than-normal rock (perhaps 2,000 kilometers in diameter) starts to rise very slowly through the surrounding mantle rocks.
Why is the plume of the core-mantle boundary not shifting?
This area is also known as a hot spot. Because the plume remains anchored at the core-mantle boundary, it does not shift position over time. So, as the lithospheric plate above it moves, a string of volcanoes (or other volcanic features) is created. Sounds logical.
What are the columns of hot mantle rocks that rise through the mantle?
Lesson Summary. Let's review. Mantle plumes are hypothesized columns of hot mantle rocks that rise through the mantle from the mantle-core boundary to the base of the lithosphere. The lower lithosphere rocks are heated by the plumes and melt to form hot spots.
Why are lava flows so massive?
The quantity of magma necessary to yield the lava flows was extreme and required melting of large volumes of mantle rocks.
What happens to the lithosphere as the plume spreads?
Eventually, the rising column of hot rock reaches the base of the lithosphere, where it spreads out, forming a mushroom-shaped cap to the plume. The overlying lithosphere is pushed up and stretched out as the plume cap spreads. Heat transferred from the plume raises the temperature in the lower lithosphere to above melting point, and magma chambers form that feed volcanoes at the surface. This area is also known as a hot spot. Because the plume remains anchored at the core-mantle boundary, it does not shift position over time. So, as the lithospheric plate above it moves, a string of volcanoes (or other volcanic features) is created.
What are the names of the lava flows that have formed in the past?
Today, these places are marked by large, flat-surfaced plateaus built up from thousands of feet of basalt lava flows. Notable flood basalts include the Columbia Plateau (Washington and Oregon), the Deccan Plateau (India), the Siberian Traps (Russia), and the Karoo (South Africa).
Where do basalt floods occur?
Flood basalts occur when basaltic lava flows from volcanoes in Hawaii only.
What are mantle plumes?
Narrow mantle upwellings , or plumes, are an integral part of Earth’s convection system, yet many controversies have surrounded mantle plumes since the idea was first invoked 1. Where the plate tectonic revolution in the 1960s provided an explanation for volcanism at plate boundaries, it did not provide a model for the occurrence of volcanism in the middle of plates. However, in 1963, it was the northwest-oriented lineament of volcanic islands forming the Hawaiian archipelago that could be explained by a rigid tectonic plate moving over a hotspot in Earth’s asthenosphere, allowing for intra-plate magma production 2. Almost a decade later, in 1971, it was hypothesized that such a hotspot could form above a vertical, narrow, hot mantle plume rising from the deep mantle 1. In these initial models, mantle plumes were defined as narrow thermal upwellings 1 with a wide ~1,000-km plume head, followed by a thinner ~100-km tail 3, 4. The deep mantle sources of plumes were later connected to the recycling of old oceanic lithosphere (and sediments) conveyed to Earth’s deep interior via subduction over the course of hundreds of millions to billions of years 5, 6, 7, thus, completing the convection cycle. How many mantle plumes exist, at what depth in the mantle they originate, their longevity and petrological make-up, the relationships between various geophysical and geochemical observations, and the dynamics and shapes of plumes are still hotly contested, leaving numerous open questions in the understanding of Earth’s interior.
How long does it take for a plume to traverse the mantle?
Widely discrepant estimates exist for mantle viscosity, as it can be (locally) controlled by variations in temperature and stress that might render global average viscosity estimates not applicable for plumes 158. One traversal time estimate can be made because reconstructed LIP eruptions are correlated with LLSVP margins and, therefore, LIPs are hypothesized to erupt from those margins 129, 159. However, in order for that correlation to be maintained during their rise through the mantle, plume heads must rise up from the lower mantle rather fast, probably within 30 million years or less, to avoid large lateral deflections, consistent with numerical models 13. For smaller plumes with smaller plume heads, such as the Yellowstone plume (Fig. 2b ), the plume heads are predicted to rise more slowly, taking 80 million years or longer 160. Despite these long ascent times, plume heads rise considerably faster than slabs sink, which are estimated to sink at speeds of 1–2 cm per year, such that slabs require between ~150 and 200 million years to reach the bottom of the mantle 13, 31, 161, 162.
Why are LLSVPs denser than the surrounding lower mantle?
If, indeed, LLSVPs are denser than the surrounding lower mantle 108, 109, this would help resist entrainment of LLSVP components in mantle convection and prevent mixing with the overlying mantle. This could help facilitate the survival of LLSVPs over hundreds of millions of years 34 and, perhaps, throughout most of Earth history 110, 111. However, resolving the internal density structure in LLSVPs is challenging 112, 113, 114 and different inferences on their estimated density 115, 116 might be because of thermal effects counteracting intrinsic density contrasts to a different extent and in different parts of the LLSVPs 117. The distinct composition and observed chemical heterogeneity of the two LLSVPs could result from a reservoir of primitive material at the base of the mantle, as suggested by the relationships between high 3 He/ 4 He hotspots and plumes originating near the core–mantle boundary 87, 118, 119, 120, 121, from the accumulation of subducted crust transformed into eclogite 34 or from some depth-dependent stratification of both 111. However, whether the LLSVPs are compact, continuous piles of compositionally distinct material 11, 43, 122 where mantle plumes are generated across their tops and along their edges or whether LLSVPs represent bundles of closely spaced thermochemical plumes 64, 123 separated by a ring of downwellings that are constrained by the geometry of tectonic plates at the surface 124, 125 remains a subject of debate 37, 117, 123, 126.
What are the geochemical signatures of mantle plumes?
These surficial geochemical signatures in mantle plume source regions, therefore, provide first-order evidence that Earth is recycling its lithospheric plates in subduction zones at a global scale and is resupplying the deep source regions of mantle plumes with various crustal materials 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210. Radiogenic isotopes (such as 87 Sr/ 86 Sr, 143 Nd/ 144 Nd, 206 Pb/ 204 Pb and 176 Hf/ 177 Hf) provide insight into which, how many and in what way different recycled materials are involved in the chemical dynamics of mantle plume formation 5, 6, 7, 45, 47, 74, 75, and show that many of the global hotspot systems have two, three or more distinct components in their mantle plume source regions 76, 79, 82, 211, 212, 213.
How wide is a thermal mantle?
Typical thermal mantle plumes in Earth are expected to have a broad plume head, up to roughly thousand kilometres in diameter, followed by a narrow plume tail, not wider than a couple of hundred kilometres 23, 28, 57, 141, 142.
How deep are mantle plumes?
To date, it is understood that mantle plumes could start as deep as the core–mantle boundary at roughly 2,900-km depth 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. These plumes are also thought to have temperatures in excess of ~100–300 °C compared with the ambient mantle 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and require tens of millions of years to ascend to the base of Earth’s lithosphere, where they form hotspots (Fig. 1a ). Computer modelling and laboratory experiments, however, have shown how entrainment of chemical heterogeneity (Fig. 1b) may change key characteristics of plume conduits, for example, by inclusion of recycled subducted ocean crust 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. As a result, most plumes are now considered thermochemical plumes rather than purely thermal plumes, and are thought to have more intricate structures and broader shapes. At asthenospheric depths, the ascending plumes can exceed the pressure-dependent melting temperature for mantle rocks, leading to partial melting, resulting in widespread magmatism that creates large igneous provinces (LIPs) and age-progressive volcanic hotspot trails 27, 28. Intra-plate hotpot volcanism, therefore, provides a unique means of sampling deep mantle plumes, providing key insights into the convective scales and physical conditions of Earth’s interior and the chemical evolution of the mantle over billions of years of Earth history 7, 16, 29, 30.
Why is the knowledge of mantle plumes limited?
Yet, knowledge of mantle plumes remains limited, largely because of the low-resolution view we have of their structures and behaviours through seismic mantle tomography studies, and because of the complexity of plume expressions in the volcanic structures (seamount trails, oceanic plateaux) on Earth’s surface.
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