The Emperor Seamounts: southward motion of the Hawaiian hotspot plume in Earth's mantle.
The Hawaiian-Emperor hotspot track has a prominent bend, which has served as the basis for the theory that the Hawaiian hotspot, fixed in the deep mantle, traced a change in plate motion. However, paleomagnetic and radiometric age data from samples recovered by ocean drilling define an age-progressive paleolatitude history, indicating that the Emperor Seamount trend was principally formed by the rapid motion (over 40 millimeters per year) of the Hawaiian hotspot plume during Late Cretaceous to early-Tertiary times (81 to 47 million years ago). Evidence for motion of the Hawaiian plume affects models of mantle convection and plate tectonics, changing our understanding of terrestrial dynamics.
Tarduno
John A
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Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627, USA. john@earth.rochester.edu
Duncan
Robert A
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Scholl
David W
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Cottrell
Rory D
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Steinberger
Bernhard
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Thordarson
Thorvaldur
T
Kerr
Bryan C
BC
Neal
Clive R
CR
Frey
Fred A
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Torii
Masayuki
M
Carvallo
Claire
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