Fixed Hot-spots Gone With Wind? Clues From Paleomagnetic Investigations of Large Igneous Provinces

Paleomagnetic studies of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) 197 on samples from the Emperor-Hawaiian seamount chain suggested that these rocks formed much farther north than the hotspot currently beneath Hawaii. These findings indicate that the hotspot, once thought to be fixed beneath the Earth's crust, actually jumped southward rapidly. Here we report paleomagnetic evidence that is consistence with these findings and suggests that rapid hotspots motion (also southward jumps) occurred while the massive Ontong Java (OJP), Kerguelen Plateau (KP), and Parana Magmatic Province (PMP) large igneous provinces formed. The paleomagnetic paleolatitude for the OJP is ~20 farther north than those predicted by the Louisville hotspot model. The difference between the paleomagnetic and hotspot calculated paleolatitudes cannot be explained by true polar wander estimates derived from other lithospheric plates. Our results are therefore consistent with and extend the Emperor-Hawaiian hotspot features in the northern Pacific Ocean that suggest Late Cretaceous to Eocene motion of Pacific hotspots. Compared to the latitude of the Kerguelen hotspot, the paleolatitudes of the central and northern Kerguelen Plateau obtained by ODP Leg 183 are further north. This difference also indicates a southward movement of the Kerguelen hotspot since the Cretaceous relative to the spin axis of the Earth. Numerical modeling of plume conduit motion in a large-scale mantle flow also predicts southward motion of the Kerguelen hotspot, which is consistent with paleomagnetic results. Likewise, paleomagnetic results from PMP reveal significant southward movement of the Tristan da Cunha hotspot in the Cretaceous. Elucidating how large igneous province formation and mantle dynamics are related and whether hotspots moved at comparable rates during other times are challenges for future research.