Home Science Scientists unearth 20 million years of ‘hot spot’ magmatism under Cocos plate

Scientists unearth 20 million years of ‘hot spot’ magmatism under Cocos plate

27

A team of scientists has observed past episodic intraplate magmatism and corroborated the existence of a partial melt channel at the base of the Cocos Plate. Situated 60 kilometers beneath the Pacific Ocean floor, the magma channel covers more than 100,000 square kilometers, and originated from the Galápagos Plume more than 20 million years ago, supplying melt for multiple magmatic events — and persisting today.

Source: ScienceDaily.com