Author(s)

Xueping Li

Geology and Geophysics Department, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, USA.

We all know that most volcanic activities occur at the plate boundaries because some deformations take place on plate margins. However, some volcanoes are found in oceans which are not plate margins and always form liner islands and seamount, such as the Hawaiian Emperor chain in the Pacific. So, we would consider why they are different from other normal volcanic activities, and we are also interested in the reasons for their formation. In addition, we are also curious about the relationship between island chains and plate motions. According to a lot of researches, scientists suggest a hypothesis that hotspots are the origination of island chains. And the hotspots are identified to originate from mantle plumes. Herefrom, mantle plumes become the focus of discussion, and at the same time, some geological structures extending from mantle plumes are also used as the research objects, like large igneous plumes (LIPs), Large low-shear velocity provinces (LLSVP’s), mid ocean ridge basalt (MORB), ocean island basalt (OIB), plate motions, extensive of major mantle plumes, and so on. The above topics will be discussed in this paper. There are some controversies over mantle plumes because some facts are in contradiction to the theory of mantle plumes, which will also be talked about.

Mantle Plume, Hotspots, Plate Motion

Li, X. (2018) The Mantle Plume Debates. Open Journal of Yangtze Oil and Gas, 3, 147-152. doi: 10.4236/ojogas.2018.32013.