Mantle plume

A hypothesized narrow column of hot rock rising from deep in the mantle, feeding volcanism independent of plate boundaries, such as at Hawaii.

Plume hypothesis debate: The dispute between plume advocates and plate-based explanations for hotspots, unresolved since the 2000s. The central controversy over whether plumes are real objects or convenient fictions.
Hotspot track: A chain of volcanoes formed as a plate moves over a near-stationary melting source. The surface expression a plume is invoked to produce, as at Hawaii.
J. Tuzo Wilson: Geophysicist who proposed in 1963 that fixed mantle sources create volcanic island chains. Originated the fixed-hotspot idea later formalized as plumes.
Hawaii hotspot: The mid-Pacific volcanic source producing the Hawaiian islands and Emperor seamounts. The archetypal plume, with a textbook age-progressive volcanic track.
Mid-ocean ridge volcanism: Magma production at divergent plate boundaries where plates pull apart. Plate-driven melting that plumes must be separated from; hotspots sit away from boundaries.
Don L. Anderson: Seismologist who led the challenge to the plume hypothesis, proposing plate-related alternatives to deep upwellings. Founder of the anti-plume camp, questioning the physics of narrow deep mantle columns.
Plume head: The enlarged bulb that forms at a plume's leading edge, thought to trigger flood basalt eruptions. The mechanism linking plumes to sudden massive eruptions before narrow tails persist.
W. Jason Morgan: Geophysicist who in 1971 proposed narrow hot buoyant plumes as the driving cause of hotspots. Coined the plume concept and tied it to flood basalts and continental break-up.
Iceland hotspot: A plume coinciding with the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, producing anomalously thick crust. A plume interacting with a spreading ridge, complicating the plume-versus-plate distinction.
Subduction zone volcanism: Arc volcanism generated by water flux melting above descending slabs. The other major volcanic style, driven entirely by plate interactions.

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