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.
Research led by Earth scientists at the University of Southampton has uncovered evidence of rhythmic surges of molten mantle rock rising from deep within the Earth beneath Africa. These pulses are gradually tearing the continent ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 25, 2025
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An international team of geoscientists, chemists and climate scientists, has found evidence of a possible ghost plume beneath the territory of Oman. In their paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, ...
Sophisticated chemical analysis of volcanic gases from Kenya has provided the first evidence that a vast mass of deep Earth material lies beneath East Africa.
Earth Sciences
May 14, 2025
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65
Geologists led by the University of Maryland and the University of Hawaiʻi finally connected the dots between one of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth's history and its source deep beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Earth Sciences
Apr 30, 2025
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63
What roils beneath Earth's surface may feel a world away, but the activity can help forge land masses that dictate ocean circulation, climate patterns, and even animal activity and evolution. In fact, scientists believe that ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 21, 2025
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154
Mars is home to perhaps the greatest mystery of the solar system: the so-called Martian dichotomy, which has baffled scientists since it was discovered in the 1970s.
Planetary Sciences
Jan 18, 2025
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