Are the Pacific and Indo–Atlantic hotspots fixed? Testing the plate circuit through Antarctica

• Main Authors: Vic Divenere A, Dennis V. Kent B
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: hot spots; plate tectonics; paleomagnetism; Hawaii; Antarctica; Byrd; East Antarctica; Marie Byrd Land; Pacific; West Antarctica; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.467.728; http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:142263/CONTENT/DiVenere_Kent1999.pdf

It is often assumed that hotspots are fixed relative to one another and thus constitute a global reference frame for measuring absolute plate motions and true polar wander. But it has long been known that the best documented hotspot track, the Hawaiian–Emperor chain, is inconsistent with the interna...