ONE of geology’s central assumptions is crumbling. The “hot spots” where
plumes of molten magma break through the Earth’s crust appear to be wandering
across the planet—a discovery that undermines many of the accepted ideas
about how the Earth’s crust is moving.
Geologists thought that magma plumes such as the one that created the
Hawaiian Islands remain in place as the plates of the Earth’s crust move over
them. For years, they have used these hot spots as a fixed frame of reference to
gauge the motion of the plates relative to the Earth’s core.
The Hawaiian Islands and…
