Hotspots

Question 1

What can cause a hotspot to develop

Answer 1

A concentration of radioactive elements inside the mantle.
From this, a plume of magma rises to eat into the plate above. Where lava breaks through to the surface, active volcanoes occur above the hot spot.

Question 2

What is special about the Hawaiian islands

Answer 2

They are not connected with any plate boundary, it is believed that this volcanic area is caused by a localised hot spot within the Pacific plate.

Question 3

How are the Hawaiian islands created

Answer 3

The hot spot is stationary, so as the Pacific plate moves over it, a line of volcanoes is created. The one above the hotspot is active and the rest form a chain of islands of extinct volcanoes. The older volcanoes have put so much pressure on the crust that subsidence has occurred. Combined with marine erosion has reduced them to sea mounts below the level of the ocean.

Question 4

What direction is the Pacific plate moving

Answer 4

Northwest

Question 5

What does the movement of the Hawaiian islands prove

Answer 5

The earths crust is moving, as originally suggested by Alfred Wegener.

Question 6

What is the age of Kauai

Answer 6

3.8 million years

Question 7

What is the age of Maui

Answer 7

1.1-0.8 millions of years