Hot spot - Definition and Overview

In geology, a hotspot is a location on the Earth's surface that has experienced active vulcanism for a long period of time. J. Tuzo Wilson came up with the idea in 1963 that volcanic chains like the Hawaiian Islands result from the slow movement of a tectonic plate across a "fixed" hot spot deep beneath the surface of the planet. Originally thought to be caused by a narrow stream of hot mantle convecting up from the mantle-core boundary called a mantle plume [1] (http://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/hotspots.html), the latest geological evidence is pointing to upper-mantle convection as a cause [2] (http://www.geotimes.org/nov00/hotspot.html)[3] (http://www.dur.ac.uk/g.r.foulger/Offprints/Yellowstone.pdf). Geologists have identified some 40-50 such hotspots around the globe, with Hawaii, Yellowstone, and Iceland overlying the most currently active.

List of hotspots

• Afar hotspot
• Amsterdam hotspot
• Ascension hotspot
• Azores hotspot
• Balleny hotspot
• Bermuda hotspot
• Bouvet hotspot
• Bowie hotspot
• Cameroon hotspot
• Canary hotspot
• Cape Verde hotspot
• Caroline hotspot
• Cobb hotspot
• Comoros hotspot
• Crozet hotspot
• Darfur hotspot
• Discovery hotspot
• East Australia hotspot
• Easter hotspot
• Eifel hotspot
• Fernando hotspot
• Galapagos hotspot
• Gough hotspot
• Guadelupe hotspot
• Hawaii hotspot
• Heard hotspot
• Hoggar hotspot
• Iceland hotspot
• Jan Mayen hotspot
• Juan Fernandez hotspot
• Kerguelen hotspot
• Lord Howe hotspot
• Louisvile hotspot
• Macdonald hotspot
• Marion hotspot
• Marquesas hotspot
• Meteor hotspot
• New England hotspot
• Pitcairn hotspot
• Raton hotspot
• Reunion hotspot
• St Helena hotspot
• St Paul hotspot
• Samoa hotspot
• San Felix hotspot
• Shona hotspot
• Society hotspot (Tahiti hotspot)
• Socorro hotspot
• Tasmanid hotspot
• Tibesti hotspot
• Trindade hotspot
• Tristan hotspot
• Vema hotspot
• Yellowstone hotspot