What are two characteristics of volcanic hotspots?

What are two characteristics of volcanic hotspots?

A volcanic “hotspot” is an area in the mantle from which heat rises as a thermal plume from deep in the Earth. High heat and lower pressure at the base of the lithosphere (tectonic plate) facilitates melting of the rock. This melt, called magma, rises through cracks and erupts to form volcanoes.

What are the main features of a volcano?

Volcanoes typically have a bowl-shaped basin at the top of the volcano, known as a crater. When magma reaches the surface, it is known as lava. Eruptions from other vents may lead to the formation of secondary cones on the flank (side) of the volcano.

How do hotspot volcanoes form?

Hotspots occur when one of the Earth’s plates moves over an unusually hot part of the Earth’s mantle. These hot areas are usually relatively stationary and result in large amounts of magma rising up, piercing a hole in the plate to form a volcano. As the plates move, a series of volcanoes can form.

What landforms do Hotspots create?

Volcanic activity at hot spots can create submarine mountains known as seamounts. Some scientists estimate that seamounts make up 28.8 million square kilometers (17.9 million square miles) of the Earth’s surface, an area larger than any other habitat.

What are the five structural features of volcano?

Volcanic Features and Landforms

• Craters. Craters form as the result of explosive eruptive activity at a volcanic vent where rock, magma, and other material is ejected leaving a conical void.
• Calderas.
• Diatremes and Maars.
• Lava Flows.
• Lava Tubes.
• Fumaroles.
• Geothermal Features.

What is an example of a hot spot volcano?

Hot spots are found in the ocean, and on continents. Often the hot spot creates a chain of volcanoes, as a plate moves across a relatively stationary mantle plume. The best example of a hot spot volcanic chain is the Hawaiian Islands. The submarine volcano, Lo’ihi, lies 18 miles off the southeast coast of Hawai’i.

How are hotspot volcanoes unique to the Earth?

A “hotspot” is an area in the Earth’s mantle from which hot plumes rise upward, forming volcanoes on the overlying crust. Hotspot volcanism would thus be unique because it does not occur at the boundaries of Earth’s tectonic plates, where other volcanism occurs.

How are mantle plumes different from hotspot volcanoes?

The mantle plumes that form hotspots are thought to be relatively stationary, while tectonic plates are not. As a plate continues to move away from the lava stream, it carries built up volcanoes with it;

Where are hotspots located in a tectonic plate?

Some chains of volcanoes lie within the interiors of tectonic plates rather than along the edges. The volcanoes are progressively older away from the largest and most active volcano. A hotspot is a large plume of hot mantle material rising from deep within the Earth.

Where are the hot spots on the Earth?

A hot spot is an area on Earth that exists over a mantle plume. A mantle plume is an area under the rocky outer layer of Earth, called the crust, where magma is hotter than surrounding magma.