Posted by Anthony Koppers on Aug 22, 2012
IODP Expedition 330 to the Louisville Seamount Trail drilled five underwater volcanoes off the NE coast of New Zealand. One hypothesis states that these volcanoes formed above a narrow plume of hot mantle rising from a position deep in the Earth’s mantle. For decades scientists assumed these mantle plumes remain anchored there for tens of millions years, but there is mounting evidence that...
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Posted by Anthony Koppers on Aug 22, 2012
IODP Expedition 324 to Shatsky Rise, located ~1500 km east of Japan, aimed to drill the only large oceanic plateau that formed during a time of magnetic reversals. This provides a unique situation whereby we understand the intimate relation of the Shatsky Rise to the ridge tectonics of ~140 million years ago very well. The allows us to test whether a plume or plate-tectonic processes are the main...
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Posted by Anthony Koppers on Aug 4, 2012
Samoa Reinstated as a Primary Hotspot Trail
Samoan mantle plume.
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