page_title: Plate reconstruction
section_title: Hotspot tracks
hierarchical_section_title: Plate reconstruction / Estimating past plate motions / Hotspot tracks
caption_attribution_description: English: The trail of underwater mountains created as the tectonic plate moved across the Hawaii hotspot over millions of years, known as the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, or the Emperor Seamounts.
context_page_description: Plate reconstruction is the process of reconstructing the positions of tectonic plates relative to each other or to other reference frames, such as the earth's magnetic field or groups of hotspots, in the geological past. This helps determine the shape and make-up of ancient supercontinents and provides a basis for paleogeographic reconstructions.
context_section_description: The presence of chains of volcanic islands and seamounts interpreted to have formed from fixed hotspots allows the plate on which they sit to be progressively restored so that a seamount is moved back over the hotspot at its time of formation. This method can be used back to the Early Cretaceous, the age of the oldest evidence for hotspot activity. This method gives an absolute reconstruction of both latitude and longitude, although before about 90 Ma there is evidence of relative motion between hotspot groups.
caption: The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain
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