The Geologic Oddity in Hawaii; What Caused the Hawaiian Hotspot Chain to Bend?

[@GeologyHub]

As the comments section is mentioning, this subject matter is still very much up for debate. It has been like this for several decades.

[@whiteknightcat]

Thank you for covering this. I've always wondered about the bend, but I also still assert that if you trace movement back far enough, the current Hawaiian hot spot is the same one responsible for the Siberian Traps and the Permian-Triassic mass extinction.

[@petermiller4953]

Could you explain why Africa is splitting apart? No, check that. HAS split apart

[@jorgesuspenso5105]

Are the scientist sure that there's no link betwen de Hawaii hotspot and the Siberian Traps?

[@JonnoPlays]

Great presentation. Cheers 🌋🥂🌋

[@JonnoPlays]

​@@whiteknightcat that's an interesting hypothesis. I'd watch a video about it if there's merits to the argument

[@Kvantum]

I did my Bachelor's in Physics and was trying to switch over to Geophysics for grad school specifically to study this one phenomenon. I've been obsessed with it for decades. I still may go back for it eventually.

[@feiryfella]

I started in astrophysics and and once you know about stars, you have to learn planets!

[@themyceliumnetwork]

is it possible that the earth's access changed?? (the controversial hypothesis) 3 to 5 mile thick ice wouldn't melt in the northern regions in a few thousand years, just do the math! a 1" cube of ice takes almost an hour to completely melt at room temperature....... (science isn't as smart as science thinks it is)

[@eriklerougeuh5772]

and is there any model who retrace all impact on earth , biggest eruption, planet movement for millions and millions years? and we knew few about mantle, can you retrace mantle movement composition temperature and pressure for millions of years? i dont think so, whereas math and physic are quite universal, specifically in geology each country go with their own strate name, geologic map are hard to mix together and each one is made with different purpose. and millions years are quite something to handle, if we come back 50millions years ago, continent werent the same, crust cna derive on mantle too. and how can we understand erosion completly?, few thousand years are enough for wipeout mountain range island and about glacier too.. everybody speak about pangee this supercontinent pangée only 250m yo, but who can explain why it form at least and what happened before because you know than the moon is a result of a collision 4b yo ago, so can you model what happen deep in the earth 4b 3b 2b 1b y ago? lot of approximation.

[@eriklerougeuh5772]

i mean, do you see how fluid is lava? deepest forage find only caramel consistance, the earth is a hot rock fluid ball where float a tiny crust. and from the scare of it you try to understand the whole history of mantle for millions years? its like trying to read marine stream history with just looking at sea surface and coast, isnt it a bit presomptuous dont you think?

[@Syclone0044]

@@eriklerougeuh5772 What are you trying to allude to? Why not just come out and say it? Are you a religious believer? PS I am guessing you are French based on your style of English, is that correct?

[@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx]

This is a rather perplexing topic for me personally. There really needs to be a high-quality visualization of this strange event.

[@Flyingdutchy33]

I've looked into this: There is absolutely no consensus about this. I would like to point out however: All those ridges turn the same direction at the same time, instantly dismantling hotspot movement as a potential cause.

[@Kvantum]

@@Flyingdutchy33 I've read that one author's papers as well and the idea of the mantle plume plasticity never really set right with me. You're absolutely right. The multiple island chains all turning at once blows all of his theories out of the water.

[@Flyingdutchy33]

@@Kvantum And so, if the hotspots didn't move.... The crust must have.

[@TheSpaceEnthusiast-vl6wx]

I honestly am still confused about the abruptness of the turn compared to the other ones.

[@swainscheps]

@@Flyingdutchy33 why? I mean…I have no basis for arguing against your point…but it seems at least *possible* that some macro scale event in the mantle caused a group of hotspots to all exhibit some kind of common behavior.

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

There's a lot yet to be learned about hot spots, their nature, origin and structure. Recent work shows that there has been some movement of hot spots relative to each other. Much of what's going on in the mantle is still mysterious, only very generally understood or hypothesized. There's a lot of detail yet to be learned about plate movements, too. Exciting times!

[@Dragrath1]

Yeah the discoveries of seismic tomography have shown that the mantle is surprisingly heterogenous one of the most interesting of which is that the boundaries between at least some spreading ridges appear to not be limited to Earth's crust but rather extend down deep into the mantle at least to the Mantle Transition Zone between the upper and lower mantle. Some hotspots such as Yellowstone or Iceland actually appear to lie directly along these discontinuities which in the absence of an overlying continent the same rigid plate like configurations as mid ocean ridges. Its a fascinating subject will be interesting to see what discoveries are made in the future

[@Vagabond820]

I heard a hypothesis that some (not all) of the hot spots may be the byproduct of a meteor impact antipodal to the hot spot.

[@williamlloyd3769]

Always wondered about why hotspot changed direction. Thanks for laying out various theories!

[@nothanks3236]

Because plates move, and rotate. Edit: Even sections within a plate can rotate, the US Pacific NW is essentially rotating right now in a clockwise direction. Perhaps some localized intra-plate rotation occurred where the hotspot was to make its track change much more drastically than did other Pacific seamount chains?

[@alecity4877]

Excellent video as always! A topic I'd really like a video about would be the Guiana Shield between Venezuela, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana.

[@JonnoPlays]

Maybe side effect of major meteor impact. Interesting they all move around the same time.

[@GeologyHub]

I do not know of any major impacts around that time. Would be unlikely to cause a tectonic shift. Although impacts release extreme amounts of energy, this energy is not enough to reverse the dominant motion of a tectonic plate.

[@AtarahDerek]

Hawaii: We're changing Lo'ihi's name to a whole sentence. Geology Hub: The seamount formerly known as Prince.

[@somguy728]

Pacific plate rotation induced by plate collision would cause these bends and also explain the greater bending as you move to the edge of the plate.

[@jamesvaughn7389]

I wondered this too. The Juan De Fuca plate and the San Andreas motion agree in the concept that the Pacific plate is trying to rotate now. There appears to be a slight twist in the Hawaian hotspot today. [The current sea mount is off line from the rest]. But that's an idea I've had for some time that the pacific plate rotated in the past. As far as I know, the hotspot is static. The plate shifts over it.

[@jul1440]

Additionally, I imagine the underlying topography of a rotating plate can cause flux in the mantle plumes which can have an effect on hotspot movement or existence.

[@jamesvaughn7389]

@@jul1440 Are you suggesting a river of sorts, of magma under the plate? And possibly, the magma gets directed to or dammed up in certain spots? I like that idea. I don't know if we have sonor that can detect that deep through the crust though.

[@jul1440]

@@jamesvaughn7389 A vertical river, yes, called an upwell; the cause of hotspots, and the spreading action at the bottom of the crust. It can be inferred from watching soup boil.

[@just_kos99]

Oh my goodness, thanks for this! I've been wondering and tried finding info online but couldn't find anything definitive. Thanks for breaking it down! My follow-up question would be, what caused that little "curly-q" on the seafloor near the west end of the Aleutian archipelago?

[@Syclone0044]

Ohh near Attu Station!! I see it! That’s my favorite thing to do with this channel, find interesting areas and then go look for them on a map.

[@RoseNZieg]

the bend has been a geological curiosity for me. thanks for the information!!

[@sassa82]

Very good and informative! Short and concise.

[@ScottDieken]

Best explanation i have seen lived in Hawaii for 23 years. Miss it badly.

[@rockadon1977]

Great topic that has always interested me since I noticed the bend many years ago. thanks for making more content on the subject.

[@gr84all]

Super! I've been wondering about this ever since the first time I saw Google Earth!

[@nortyfiner]

Because of the differences of motion noted at different times in different parts of the Pacific Plate, I have wondered if the "single huge plate" idea might be wrong and there's something more structurally complex going on.

[@RSimpkinuk57]

East-west is the same direction throughout the Pacific plate, but north-south is not. North-south lines are parallel only at the equator, becoming increasingly convergent towards the poles. How do the bends in the different hotspot tracks compare when corrected to spherical geometry?

[@Adam-pu6jg]

The Pacific Plate _should_ mostly be one huge plate (due to the way it formed), perhaps with the odd microplate or remnant of an extinct plate merged with the Pacific Plate

[@therealzilch]

Fascinating. Yet another demonstration that there's yet a lot to be learned about our own planet. cheers from rainy Vienna, Scott

[@snigwithasword1284]

Love big picture questions like this!

[@thebassoonman2020]

Ive literally been wondering about this. Thanks!

[@GustavSvard]

Thank you for this video. I'd been wondering why the bend existed, and I had not noticed the bends in the other hot-spot island chains. Interesting that a connection to the movement (and collision) of the Indian/Australian plate(s) is possible.

[@gopal_kolathu1960]

Thank you. The alternative theory of a moving hotspot is new to me😊

[@PunaSquirrel]

That's wild. Mahalo from the Lower East Rift Zone, Hawaii.

[@brucefoster4106]

I've lived in Hawaii all by life, but have never heard of Makuhona. Please make a video featuring more information of Makuhona. Mahalo!

[@calebwhite1454]

What I'm curious about is what caused the split path of seamounts there at the bend

[@robrod7120]

Good question, thats also very interesting

[@smeegle213]

It also appears that after the bend occurred, activity seems to have waned for a period. As the seamounts immediately after the bend appear much smaller/more eroded.

[@Borsuk3344]

What about the proposed bend in the path of the Yellowstone hotspot? Can you cover that as well please?

[@carlosvanvegas]

Have always wondered about this 👍

[@Anna-xw1hh]

Video request: Geology of New Mexico/ Valles Caldera? (or other cool geologic sites there!)

[@stevemailander6760]

I am not a geologist, but have always had an active interest. I also have a tendency to look at things quite differently from the accepted norm. I have often wondered about the direction change at the Emperor seamount. This video has given a historical date of about 47 million years for the direction change, which falls about 18 million years short of what I believed. Hearing of the other Pacific hotspot changes (Rurutu, Macdonald and Louisville) I again thought: Is there an error in the time table? Extending the southeasterly direction of growth, you come very close to the Chicxulub impact site. I am sure that there is also some tectonic drift of that location as well, but was it possible that the impact was so great that the entire Pacific plate was "pushed" into a new westerly direction causing the change in hotspot movement? Assuming that the hotspot location is fairly stable, I think that the movement of the Pacific plate over the hotspot is slowly trying to resume a northerly direction (elastic memory of the crust?) which may account for the "mostly straight line with some minor variations" towards the southeast. This video shows that the geologic timing overrides my assumption, but it was an interesting concept for me for a while.

[@richardsilva-spokane3436]

You make an intriguing point!

[@serena-yu]

The Pacific plate was born from the triple point of the three main plates of Panthalassa: Farallon, Phoenix and Izanagi. A major decrease in spreading rate of the Antarctic-Phoenix Ridge and the convergence rate of the Phoenix Plate with the Antarctic Plate occurred around 52.3 Ma ago, followed by subduction of a segment of the Antarctic-Phoenix Ridge between 50 and 43 Ma ago. This ridge, was the main engine of the Pacific plate's northward momentum. When the ridge itself was subducted, the south-north expansion lost most of its drive. That sounds to me like a possible explanation.

[@klaxxor]

New drinking game. Every time he says "thus" take a sip!

[@Syclone0044]

I still miss how he used to end each video with “pay-tree-on”.

[@Syclone0044]

I like how many of these comments are open-ended questions. It shows a high level of healthy scientific curiosity in this community.

[@alfredmolison7134]

Topic request: Are these meteor impacts? There are two undersea chains leading to circular areas off the coast of Massachusetts and Nova Scotia. There's an undersea chain leading from the central Atlantic to Nigeria, which include Sao Tome and Principe. There's another chain starting at approximately Edinburgh of the Seven Seas going to the coast of Angola/Namibia. There's a chain to the West of South America starting at Isla de Pascua (Hanga Roa), splitting in two and going to the coasts of Southern Peru and Northern Chile. I'm seeing even more. The first chain pointing to circular underwater features near Massachusetts and Nova Scotia just seem pretty obvious. Is that, or any of the others, discussed in academia?

[@michaelj.beglinjr.2804]

Impacts seem to be something that nearly all branches hate to discuss. Or maybe I'm being paranoid, but a lot of scientists seem to either ignore or belittle the question.

[@johnclamp1535]

Could you do Yeak Lom Lake in Cambodia? It is a very unusual geologic feature.

[@jcoop3660]

I beleive its a likely combination, the plates tend to grind along the edges like a boat, this can make the plate continuously change direction like a grounding boat. Molten hotspots can also move, flowing with the major viscosity like a heat plume from a fire in the wind.

[@EarthquakeSim]

Thank you so much for this!! The Hawaiian islands are my favorite place to visit in the world! I have always been deeply fascinated by the local geology

[@El3andro]

Can you make a video about the other mentioned hotspots like Louisville, MacDonald and the Rurutu hotspot and its current vulcanoes?

[@MagmaPaint]

Hey, it's the topic that I did my university Capstone project on!

[@AxelSqueeze]

I've been curious about this for years actually since its clearly visible on Google earth

[@OpaSpielt]

Thank you for the explanation. The time coincidence of the change in the Pacific plate movement and the Indian plate crashing into the Eurasian plate is interesting. Perhaps both are not connected to each other but it's not impossible that they are. I thought about the bended line since I first noticed it. Thank you a lot ❤ for the video Have a nice day 🖐👴👍

[@oscarmedina1303]

I had that exact same discussion with a couple of geologists but the time frame doesn't match. It's off by millions of years.

[@sigisoltau6073]

​@@oscarmedina1303Well the collision did start about 50 to 55 million years ago. It may have taken time for the surrounding plates to adjust.

[@DrMJT]

ECD - Earth Crust Displacement. The wiggles and wobbles of the chain and the abrupt bend are not a change of direction of the what lies beneath but of a what is above (crust) being in a different location. Move you globe until the NW line is on and West-East axis.... and you will see one of the previous locations of the North and South Pole. ECD occurs every 12.5k to 50k years.

[@keithclark6521]

Very interesting. I would like to hear your thoughts on the coso volcanic field in California.

[@walterulasinksi7031]

My hypothesis is that the bend was caused by the collision of the Pacific plate with the SW tail of the Juan De Fuco plate off the Oregon coast and the mid locking of the San Andreas north of Los Angeles. The Pacific Plate partially sub-ducted under the Juan de Fuco and then locked with the northward direction being forced to be North West instead. It is why the pacific plate has a divergent boundary with the Juan De Fuco except at the lock where the Pacific plate is trying to force theJuan De Fuco plate to subduct at the Cascadia subduction boundary. Such activity can be seen in mechanical terms where it it makes sense.

[@Glaudge]

there is quite a bit of deviation in the current hawaiian islands + loihi seamount compared to the last 47 million years track. could we currently be witnessing another bend happening?

[@wiredforstereo]

How could we know? The volcanoes probably never form exactly over the hot spot as the magma finds its way up through the crust in the path of least resistance. None of the volcanoes are really in a straight line. Though if you look a the placement of the big island, it's quite possible a southward trend may be evident. At the same time, the surface islands don't tell the whole story. The big island is the big island, but only if one doesn't take into account the entirety of Maui-Nui. Seems to me the trend would indicate much greater lava production since the start of Maui-Nui. None of the previous islands was near as big as either Maui-Nui or Hawai'i.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

@@wiredforstereo Isn't at least part of the reason that Hawaiian islands WNW of Maui and Hawaii are smaller because bring older they have gradually subsided back into the ocean?

[@BlueCyann]

I could be wrong, but I think what the video pointed out about other pacific hotspots, along with the discussion of the Hawaiian one maybe actually moving, suggests that there hasn't been any major change in plate movement more recently. That it's the hotspot moving that is responsible, in other words.

[@wiredforstereo]

@Michael Deierhoi They have but they create reefs as they do so. They won't completely sink back into the ocean floor. In fact, I was watching a video today about the mantle plume and they were talking about how the island building output has increased exponentially since the early days of the Hawaii Emporer Seamount Chain, 80 million years ago. In 80 million years Maui Nui will be a large family of former atoll reefs, rather than a tiny seamount like the early ones 80-50 mya.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

@@wiredforstereo Interesting. Thanks for commenting back.

[@briane173]

I've often wondered about this myself. I'm not above postulating that when the Farallon Plate subducted beneath N America and the San Andreas Fault began to form was about the same time frame as the Big Bend. What's to say that due to the shift of the Farallon Plate from a convergent boundary to a transform boundary, the North American Plate's continual westward movement hasn't been "pushing" the Pacific Plate in a similar direction?

[@Dragrath1]

Sadly we know those features didn't form at the right time nor latitude the situation is way more complicated than that in western North America Nick Zentner's A to Z Baja BC controversy livestream series from this past winter takes deep dive into this.

[@briane173]

@@Dragrath1 You're not lyin'. I tried to keep up during Nick's Baja/BC A-Z this winter, but he just got done doing a downtown lecture series that puts it all together in a digestible form that explains a whole lot with a lot more clarity. I attended the "How the Rockies were Formed" lecture in Ellensburg and I wasn't disappointed. Turns everything we thought we knew about the west coast tectonics on its ear.

[@darbyl3872]

The turn is not 115 degrees. It's ~65 degrees. The inside angle is ~115 degrees.

[@jasonmarkson3773]

Brilliant with 1 problem. Why was Hapgoods's theory on Earth Crustal Displacement theory not entertained even as a side note?

[@phprofYT]

Imagine a few trillion tons of dirt suddenly changing direction. Fascinating.

[@ToastedTater420]

I heard a theory that the Hawaiian hotspot possibly could have been caused by a antipode from a asteroid hitting Africa. There is a crater there almost exactly the opposite of the hotspot and if it was big enough the somhockwave through the earth could have cause the opposite side to open up causing the hotspot. Idk if it’s true but it sounds like an possibility. What do you think?

[@LyubomirIko]

Wondering if someone can connect the most prominent changes of directions with some big plume eruptions or catastrophic event...

[@penguinuprighter6231]

Fantastic stuff

[@leyvarecio3699]

hi @GeologyHub is there any posibility to ask if there have been any flood basalts in mexico? great videos thanks

[@mediocrates3416]

It looks to me like North West South America is impacting an ancient content firmly ensconced in the Pacific plate. The Galapagos islands (?) look like they're on the South West tip of this ancient content. The stress has compelled a split in the Carribean (?) plate, maybe? ... Good stuff! Thanks!

[@robertpyrosthenes1092]

Is it possible that a plate interaction changed from strike slip to subduction?

[@fire_n_ice1984]

I was wondering about this too. I assumed it was a change in direction of the plate. It's nice to get an educated opinion about this event. Love your channel.

[@pyropulseIXXI]

The crust slipped when the magma coefficient of friction decreased due to magnetic disturbance Since the ice caps have more mass, they swung the entire crust until the ice caps were at the equator due to rotation. This magma source is below the crust, so it stayed put relative to the Earth itself. Only the crust slid, like an outer shell loosening up due to slippage

[@oberonpanopticon]

I always noticed the bend on maps, but I never thought much of it. I don’t know much about continental drift so I assumed “yup, pacific just decided to go in a different direction”

[@icollectstories5702]

After consuming the Kula Plate, the Pacific Plate decided to look for new prey.😜

[@MichaelClark-uw7ex]

The bend occurred right about the time the North American plate overrode the Pacific spreading ridge. Until then the Pacific plate was moving North then it started moving West. Overriding progressively younger crust was probably easier as NA moved west so the Pacific plate could continue North but when the ridge was crossed, NA started riding over old,tougher crust, friction increased and started pushing the Pacific crust westward,

[@keesvrins8410]

@geologyhub what is your opinion about Pythias Oasis? Seems a little bit dramatised to me.

[@albertperson4013]

The answer may lie in the LLSVPs, as defined summarily in Wikipedia, but one is called the Pacific LLSVP and the other the African LLSVP, which may explain why the African continent is splitting apart. These are also known as 'superplumes' and are disrupting the crust above them. Thanks for watching!

[@robrod7120]

This reminds me of a similar question I had about the aleutian island chain. There seems to be a “hook” in the bering sea off the coast of kamchatka, that spirals north off of the plate boundary that forms the aleutian chain. What caused/causes that structure? I cant find much online

[@robrod7120]

Just remembered: I think it is called bowers ridge. Still not entirely sure of its origin however

[@stevepin8042]

Is there a similar hot spot track pattern from what eastern Washington thru Idaho to the Yellow Stone in north west Wyoming ? Are the dates of this moving hot spot similar or is this a coincidence? Geology Hub Rocks! Stupid dad joke, I can't help it.

[@toughenupfluffy7294]

Could you please do a video on palimpsest plate boundaries, that is, ancient plate boundaries that are now extinct yet still visible? One look at the Pacific seafloor in Google Earth should illuminate what I'm talking about. Thanks.

[@colinlove5062]

Always wondered if the plate changing directions caused the bend, thanks for the video. Looking at where the Hawaiian seamount chain ends in Kamchatka I also have makes me question how much if at all extra material sub-ducted effects the size & shape of the peninsula. It’s one of the most volcanically active areas of the ring of fire which is saying something considering it neighbors Japan.

[@customislandtours]

At the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, they had an exhibit called Science on a Sphere, where they projected animations onto a sphere that you could walk around while it was being displayed. One of the displays was the hurricane season, the year that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Another display was an animation of the tectonic plates moving. In this animation it showed the older Hawaiian islands that now make up the Emperor Seamount Chain, as they were being formed in chronological order back in time, which starts about 75 million years ago. As I walked around this globe, I noticed that the kink in the Hawaiian island chain coincided with when the Indian subcontinent slammed into Asia, forming the Himalaya mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. The Hawaiian Astronomical Society which I was a member of at the time, meets at the Bishop Museum, that's why I was there to see this. I told the members of the Astronomy club about my idea that maybe India slamming into Asia, jammed up the tectonic plates somehow and caused the direction of the Pacific plate to change, thus causing the change of direction in the formation of the Hawaiian islands. They all said that I was crazy. A couple of years later while printing out maps about Hawaii for my tour company, I came across a scientific paper that suggested the same thing that I thought. It's still the best idea I've heard.

[@michaeldeierhoi4096]

The problem with theory may be that geologists have not yet been able to draw a causal link from one to the other. So at present it is at best secondary influence on the Pacific plate redirection.

[@octajon]

I am curious what you think the shape AND size of the Hawaiian hotspot might be. I've seen some images from Wikipedia (yeah I know) of the mantle plume head potentially being dragged by the Pacific plate. I've seen some figures that the size of the hotspot could be 500-600 kms wide (310-370 miles - also source linked in wiki). However I am curious if you think the width AND length of the hotspot are vastly different or not. It seems to me like it might be, since there aren't many volcanoes around Hawaii. They are pretty packed in a tight bunch. But I only have an elementary knowledge of geology and volcanology. Thanks!

[@CJB787]

I’ve always thought the idea that the Hawaiian plume was caused by the impact at its antipode in South Africa, Ngorongoro Crater, was an interesting idea. Creating a shockwave within the earth creating the hot spot. I don’t think it’s really possible due to continental drift as the antipode may have changed since the impact. But still interesting to think about.

[@smiler0charon]

Ngorongoro Crater is a volcanic caldera in Tanzania. Are you thinking of a different place that's an impact site?

[@CJB787]

@@smiler0charon oh you’re right. I meant the Vredefort impact site in South Africa.

[@smiler0charon]

@@CJB787 curious -- reminds me of the hypothesis that the Hellas Planitia impact basin on Mars led to the formation of the Tharsis Rise & related shield volcanoes...

[@doncolor3473]

As always verry interesting 🤗

[@glauberglousger6643]

I would’ve loved to see the original mantle plume head’s island, it must’ve been enormous, Iceland or larger sized

[@KS-ko9on]

You could actually calculate the size of it. Confounding factors would be ocean current erosion as they have changed over the time period. My old professor Denis Guiest wrote a paper on how the island chain shrinks as it cools down and that's why they are all under water. He basically got called a crackpot in prominent journals for the idea but was later proved right.

[@NoahSpurrier]

Maybe the plate rotated and one end swung around faster than the other; although then you’d expect an arc to form. Maybe the hot spots get dragged a bit.

[@anthonyloconte7835]

If ya look at the Big Island and where Lohihi is, it's pretty clear the chain is bending again.

[@bobforward5658]

If the Hotspot is relatively stationary and the Pacific plate is moving over it then the collision of two other plates - Indian and Asian, could alter the Pacific plate's movement, resulting in the perceived bend in the Hawaiian chain.

[@justdriveon]

Love, love, love your stuff! But you speak so fast I have to slow the speed down to understand. It's like one long unending word.

[@roberttolbert7002]

How would the pacific plate changing have effected the plates in the north pacific around Washington?

[@baystated]

The big island doesn't follow in line with the past few millions of years. And it seems massive compared to recent island clusters (even if clusters has been conjoined "big islands" of their time) Is it turning again? Is it slowing?

[@LeeTomaVideo]

I've wondered about the sizes of the seamounts / islands too. The recent ones do seem much more massive, especially compared to the ones that formed right after the bend. And the Emperor Seamounts look larger and appear to have flat tops that might have eroded at the surface. Does the hot spot vary in intensity? Maybe that was in between convection cells bubbling up to the surface? I looked up maps of seafloor age and it doesn't look like the seafloor moved dramatically faster or slower over time. (PS, greetings from a Bay Stater)

[@livingbeings]

I have wondered about this for years. I guess the answer still isn’t clear.

[@62Cristoforo]

I’ve often wondered about that ‘bend’ in the chain, and always wondered how much time had elapsed between then and now, and what may have caused the abrupt change in direction. The ocean plate is like a sheet of wax moving over a candle, or a deep magma vent, making a chain of small holes along a straight line, which then changes direction

[@JJ-fq4nl]

Very spectacular view watching the lava inside Mauna Loa at night. Daringly walked the rim of Fissure 8, now named Ahu'aila'au, in Leilani Estates on the Big Island. It was still smoking & hotter in the area.

[@al2207]

very interesting, the same demonstration can negate the idea of crust shift at an recent past

[@BFjordsman]

I think my professor said it had something to do with the Juan de fuca plate getting taken over by the continent.

[@dananorth895]

It's like trying to put together a giant 3-dimensional jigsaw puzzle but all the pieces keep moving/changing over time.

[@bomat761]

Could pole shift activity have anything to do with this re alignment of the volcanic formation of the chain?

[@arrionelton]

I assume that mantle plumes are formed as a result of a temperature gap in the mantle, you see, a very ancient "cold" fragment of the plate passes through the conditional temperature boundary "very quickly", which is why a temperature gap is formed, which is why the warmer mantle rises and melts the colder mantle at the top.

[@lynnmitzy1643]

Could the Farralon plate being subducted under the north American plate have caused this ?

[@nothanks3236]

I mean, by the time the bend happened the Farallon had been subducting under North America for 100 million years already, not sure it lines up.

[@jul1440]

How many mile/tons of torque does it take to rotate the world's largest tectonic plate?

[@peterway7867]

How about tectonic plate movement between the Antarctic Peninsular and the southern tip on South America and the South Sandwich Islands. What's going on there?

[@TheKrispyfort]

It's probably something below the plates either attracting or repelling the hot spots. Are these hot spots being dragged from below? Are they 'caught' or 'snagged' by something. Were they previously and are now liberated?

[@apartofthewhole6639]

Is this related to the formation of the rocky mountains in the fixed island narrative? There is Paleo magnetism that suggests similar movements of land in North America

[@BIGmlems]

Would be interesting if the Hawaiian hot spot was the same one that burst open in the form of basalt flood where Siberia is or once was looking at the direction that line is going in.

[@johnmorton1430]

I am curious about three tracks intersecting. The Aleutians the Hawaiian islands chain and the Japanese Chain. Is it possible that a major meteor hit causing a hot spot that split. Is it further possible that this might have something to do with the Siberian Traps.

[@marlies220]

This is very interesting 🤓

[@MoOrion]

Yes the Volcano formally known as Loihi! Because Efff what ever the heck it's called now.

[@AvangionQ]

1:23 The Indian plate colliding with the Asian plate at this time was my first suspect.

[@joedellinger9437]

I was taught that the slight kink at Oahu was caused by a plate boundary reconfiguration around New Zealand, and that also explains why Southern California is a mess, with the San Andreas no longer aligned properly to take up the relative plate motions (causing the California coast ranges to rise) and new more North-South regional faults located farther inland starting to take over from the S.A. as the new main plate boundary faults.

[@capitalisteconomist]

After seeing where the hotspot came from, is it possible that maybe the hotspot originated from the Siberian traps. Just like the Yellowstone hotspot originated from something similar in the Pacific northwest?

[@joopterwijn]

Just a thought, maybe a hugh meteor impact impacted the plate movements.

[@paintfatpurple7394]

Thank you

[@TraumaQueen65]

When was the last time the poles moved?