A mantle plume is a buoyant, localized upwelling of anomalously hot, partially molten or near-solid-state mantle material that rises from depth toward the lithosphere, driven primarily by thermal and compositional density contrasts. In geodynamic models, mantle plumes are often represented as narrow, cylindrical conduits with bulbous heads, capable of producing large magma volumes upon decompression melting in the upper mantle. They are invoked to explain intraplate magmatism, flood basalt provinces, and hotspot volcanism, and are studied through seismic tomography, geochemical tracers (e.g., isotopic signatures), and numerical or analogue convection experiments that constrain their temperature excess, geometry, and temporal evolution.
Contrary to conventional geological thinking, the Hawaiian mantle plume has gotten hotter by about 250°C (480°F) over the past 47 million years. This discovery, led by Earth scientists at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 14, 2026
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Nearly 660 kilometers (410 miles) beneath Earth's surface lies one of the planet's most important internal boundaries. Known as the 660-km seismic discontinuity, it separates the mantle transition zone from the lower mantle ...
Earth Sciences
Jul 2, 2026
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The Ontong Java Plateau in the western Pacific Ocean is the largest oceanic plateau on Earth, and its formation mechanism has not been well understood.
Earth Sciences
Jun 15, 2026
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Over 40,000 seamounts—undersea mountains that don't breach the ocean's surface—are scattered across the ocean floor. Some form linear chains, while others occur as dispersed, isolated features that are not part of well-defined ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 15, 2026
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Located in the middle of the North Pacific, between Japan and Canada, lies one of the world's largest oceanic plateaus, the so-called Hess Rise. The plateau is roughly T-shaped and extends over a length of about 1,000 kilometers. ...
Earth Sciences
May 24, 2026
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Bizarre Venus surface formations (or coronae) are likely key to understanding our twin planet's heretofore inscrutable interior. Using NASA Magellan spacecraft data from decades past, Anna Gulcher, an Earth and planetary ...
Planetary Sciences
May 18, 2026
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A lot of research goes into determining how to best predict the next eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Part of this involves pinning down how the magma migration system functions and evolves over time. The exact mechanism ...
Supereruptions are extremely large volcanic eruptions that eject more than 1,000 cubic kilometers of magma, rock and ash. They are among the most hazardous geological events on Earth and have profound impacts on the environment, ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 10, 2026
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When the supercontinent Pangea began to fragment around 200 million years ago during the Early Jurassic, it reshaped the face of the planet. Vast new oceans opened, continents drifted apart and the familiar geography of today ...
About 56 million years ago, Europe and North America began pulling apart to form what became the ever-expanding North Atlantic Ocean. Vast amounts of molten rock from Earth's mantle reached the ocean floor as the crust stretched ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 18, 2026
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