What is this site
about? How do I use it?
This site is for those
who are interested in the origin of "hot spots",
or melting anomalies.
For over 30 years the
interrelated, but usually viewed as independent, plate
tectonic and plume theories have been the two most important
paradigms in the solid Earth sciences. The plume theory,
invoked to explain “hot spot” or “anomalous”
volcanism, is currently under vigorous debate. The primary
objective of www.mantleplumes.org
is to encourage this discussion by making a broad suite
of relevant information easily available to students,
specialists in all branches of the Earth sciences, and
lay people.
www.mantleplumes.org
is continually growing. As each new item is added to
the site, an anouncement is placed at the top of the
"Notice Board"
in the centre of the white area of the home page. Older
notices are removed from the bottom as new ones are
added to the top. Links to the older articles are to be found under the relevant subject groupings displayed elsewhere on the home page.
Materials available include
technical tutorials and perspectives on a wide variety
of topics, divided into four main categories:
-
Mechanisms:–links along the top: Technical contributions describing genesis
models for “hot spot” volcanism, e.g.,
plate-tectonic processes and “EDGE”
convection,
- Localities:–pull-down menu: Technical contributions discussing particular “hot
spots” and large igneous provinces such as
Iceland, Samoa and the Deccan Traps,
-
Generic:–list of links at left: Technical contributions
discussing issues of general relevance to the origin
of “hot spot” volcanism, e.g.,
convection, noble gases and seismology, and
-
Other resources:–icons on home page: Databases,
recent abstracts, preprints, offprints, bibliographies,
student work, Powerpoint presentations, comments
and letters, information on recent relevant conferences,
debating materials, historical papers, a blog of
recent papers and both technical and non-technical
news articles. Useful resources also include the books:
- "Plates, plumes, and paradigms",
Geological Society of America Special Paper 388, pp. 881,
2005,
- "Plates, plumes, and planetary processes", Geological Society of America Special Paper 430, pp. 998,
2008,
- "Plates vs Plumes: A Geological Controversy", Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 328, 2010;
- "The Interdisciplinary Earth: A volume in honor of Don L. Anderson", Geological Society of America Special Paper SPE514, in preparation.
At the time of writing
over 700 scientists have contributed to the website.
We welcome contributions from interested parties and
feedback from visitors.
See also “About
this site”.
Don
L. Anderson & Gillian
R. Foulger
6th March, 2015 |
