Hotspots and seismic waves
- Created by: _HannahJones
- Created on: 10-05-17 16:11
What is a hotspot?
- A small area of the Earths crust where an unusually high heat flow is associated with volcanic activity.
Example: the Hawaiian Islands
Intense radioactivity in the Earths interior creates a plume from the asthenosphere.
Pushes upwards; the pressure drops and the rock becomes molten, melting and pushing through the crust above.
Lies under a fixed position of the tectonic plate.
As the plate moves upwelling lava creates a steady succession of new volcanoes that migrate along with the plate
The plume also eats into or melts the plate above, so that the thickness of the crust at this point is much smaller than average
These domes or plumes of rock can be up to 1,000 km across.
Earthquakes
1) shallow focus (0-70km)
2) Intermediate (70-300)
3) Deep ((300-700)
Seismic Waves
Sesimic waves radiate from the focus (like ripples from a stone being thrown into…
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