Quantification of Plate Motion Relative to the Hotspots

William Marsh Rice University, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

This project is investigating the motion of the tectonic plates relative to the hotspots, which are persistent locations of volcanism thought by many to originate deep in the Earth. Examples of hotspot volcanoes include active volcanism at Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, active volcanism at and near Iceland, and volcanism in Yellowstone National Park. The motion of the tectonic plates relative to the hotspots since 68 million years ago are being estimated as are the uncertainty in estimates of that motion using new methods developed in the project. These uncertainties are being used to estimate uncertainties of several predictions, for example, using the motion of the Pacific plate relative to the hotspots to predict the motion of the Nubian (West African) plate relative to the hotspots. These predictions and their uncertainties are being used to test several hypotheses including the hypothesis that hotspots in the Atlantic Ocean basin are stationary relative to those in the Pacific Ocean basin. This will provide important information about motions deep within the planet and thus provide fundamental knowledge about internally driven Earth processes. The new methods developed for estimating these uncertainties will are being made widely available so that they can be readily used by other researchers.