Author Question: What is a hot spot, and how are these natural phenomena explained? What will be an ideal ... (Read 73 times)

iveyjurea

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What is a hot spot, and how are these natural phenomena explained?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Briefly explain plate tectonics in terms of convection. (Plate tectonics and work).
 
  What will be an ideal response?



Kaytorgator

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Answer to Question 1

Answer: Hot spots are areas where molten material rises from deep in the mantle below the moving lithosphere. They are often in the middle of plates, such as Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific plate. Large volcanic islands build up as the Pacific plate moves over the Hawaiian hot spot. A volcano becomes extinct as plate motion carries it away from the hot spot, the area of rising hot mantle, and a new volcano appears in its wake. These are the result of processes not explained by plate tectonics.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: Through convection, a process involving heat energy, plates move towards one another and collide at convergent boundaries. The lighter, cooler rock from the Earth's surface sinks, while less dense rock expanded by radioactive heating in the interior rises. Convection motion of the mostly solid mantle is extremely slow.



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