I would like to know about magma plumes. I would like to know about magma plumes. I was also told that Hawaii is actually a set of sea mounds which were once active volcanoes that moved way from a magma plume and have cooled. A hot spot is the surface expression of the mantle plume.
Geologists think the hot spots are stationary and the tectonic plates are mobile.
The hot spot provides magma which supplies volcanoes. The movement of the plate carries the volcano off the hot spot and it gradually becomes extinct and usually subsides below sea level. A new volcano begins to form on the sea floor and grow towards the surface. Some of these volcanoes rise above sea level to make islands. Suiko seamount is 65 million years old, the oldest seamount associated with the Hawaiian hot spot.