Produced by: Manoj Kumar
New data shows the Kerguelen hotspot, once thought stationary, shifted hundreds of km—overturning a key plate tectonics assumption.
The 5,000-km-long Ninetyeast Ridge in the Indian Ocean was formed by a moving, not fixed, volcanic plume.
Using argon-argon dating, researchers traced lava flow ages, revealing hotspot movement around 35 million years ago.
Representative pic
Seismic tomography helped track the Kerguelen plume’s shift, mapping its drift through Earth’s upper mantle.
Representative pic
For decades, stationary hotspots served as reference points for tectonic models—this study challenges that idea.
Representative pic
Instead of rising straight up, the plume moved laterally within the mantle, likely redirected by convection currents or plate interactions.
If the Kerguelen hotspot moved, others—like those in the Pacific—might have shifted too, impacting global tectonic reconstructions.
This aligns with newer theories that hotspots aren’t truly fixed, but can migrate due to mantle dynamics and spreading ridges.
The findings refine how we model Earth’s tectonic history, influencing theories on continental drift and deep Earth behavior.