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Factors influencing the locations of hot spots determined by the hot‐spotting technique
Author(s) -
Wessel Paul,
Kroenke Loren W.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/97gl03774
Subject(s) - seamount , hot spot (computer programming) , geology , seafloor spreading , maxima , volcano , seismology , spotting , amplitude , geodesy , geophysics , optics , paleontology , physics , computer science , art , performance art , art history , operating system
Seafloor beneath hot‐spot‐produced seamounts have crustal flow lines that intersect at the hot spot locations, provided there is more than one stage rotation and that hot spots are stationary. Convolving seamount shapes with their associated flow lines yields an image of cumulative volcano amplitude (CVA). We call the technique of correlating local CVA maxima with hot spot locations “hot‐spotting”. This technique is geometrical and requires no age information for seamounts or seafloor. We analyze synthetic and actual seamount data and demonstrate that factors such as across‐trail scatter in seamount locations, inaccurate stage poles, and migration of hot spots all exert strong influences on the locations and appearances of CVA maxima. The interpretation of raw CVA images is therefore not straightforward.