plume head

Definitions

1. 1

   The broad, flattened top of a mantle plume, the eruption of which is thought to create a…

   The broad, flattened top of a mantle plume, the eruption of which is thought to create a large igneous province.

   • When the plumehead reaches the underside of the overlying lithospheric shell of the Earth, it spreads laterally and thereby causes fractures to form which may propagate upward into the continental or oceanic crust.
   • Hotspots indicated by basaltic volcanism mark the position of the plume head below the Earth's surface, where magma has been generated by the partial melting of rising mantle material.
   • The surface elevations surrounding a hot spot have been explained by the presence of a plume head below the lithosphere.

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