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Limited latitudinal mantle plume motion for the Louisville hotspot

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 911–917 (2012)Cite this article

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A Corrigendum to this article was published on 21 December 2012

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Abstract

Hotspots that form above upwelling plumes of hot material from the deep mantle typically leave narrow trails of volcanic seamounts as a tectonic plate moves over their location. These seamount trails are excellent recorders of Earth’s deep processes and allow us to untangle ancient mantle plume motions. During ascent it is likely that mantle plumes are pushed away from their vertical upwelling trajectories by mantle convection forces. It has been proposed that a large-scale lateral displacement, termed the mantle wind, existed in the Pacific between about 80 and 50 million years ago, and shifted the Hawaiian mantle plume southwards by about 15° of latitude. Here we use 40Ar/39Ar age dating and palaeomagnetic inclination data from four seamounts associated with the Louisville hotspot in the South Pacific Ocean to show that this hotspot has been relatively stable in terms of its location. Specifically, the Louisville hotspot—the southern hemisphere counterpart of Hawai’i—has remained within 3–5° of its present-day latitude of about 51° S between 70 and 50 million years ago. Although we cannot exclude a more significant southward motion before that time, we suggest that the Louisville and Hawaiian hotspots are moving independently, and not as part of a large-scale mantle wind in the Pacific.

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Figure 1: Louisville seamount trail location maps with IODP Expedition 330 drill sites and new 40Ar/39 Ar ages.
Figure 2: Louisville seamount ages compared to Pacific Plate APM models.
Figure 3: Downhole stratigraphic and inclination plots for IODP Site U1374 on Rigil Guyot.
Figure 4: Bootstrap inclination distributions for individual Louisville seamounts drilled by IODP Expedition 330.
Figure 5: Comparisons of observed flow mean inclinations for the Louisville hotspot to geomagnetic field model predictions.

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  • 21 December 2012

    Nature Geoscience 5, 911–917 (2012); published online 25 November 2012. In the print version of this Article originally published, the present address for Toshitsugu Yamazaki was erroneously omitted. It is as follows: Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan.

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Acknowledgements

This research used samples and data provided by the IODP. Financial support was provided by the NSF and IODP-USSSP. We thank J. Huard, S. Schnur and D. Heaton for support in the OSU Argon Geochronology Laboratory. The JOIDES Resolution captain, crew and technicians are thanked for their support during IODP Expedition 330. We also thank C. Constable and L. Tauxe for providing code for the geomagnetic field models and P. Arason for the inclination-only averaging code.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Jörg Geldmacher

    Present address: Present address: GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, D-24148 Kiel, Germany. All authors are members of the IODP Expedition 330 Scientific Party,

  2. Toshitsugu Yamazaki

    Present address: Present address: Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8564, Japan.,

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Oregon State University, 104 CEOAS Administration Building, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-5503, USA

    Anthony A. P. Koppers & P. M. Fulton

  2. Geological Survey of Japan, AIST, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba, 305-8567, Japan

    Toshitsugu Yamazaki

  3. Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, Texas A&M University, 1000 Discovery Drive, College Station, Texas 77845-9547, USA

    Jörg Geldmacher

  4. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0225, USA

    Jeffrey S. Gee & D. Ebuna

  5. National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK

    Nicola Pressling

  6. Department of Earth Sciences, Aichi University of Education, 1 Hirosawa, Igaya-cho, Kariya City, Aichi 448-8542, Japan

    Hiroyuki Hoshi

  7. Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

    L. Anderson

  8. GeoZentrum Nordbayern, University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Schlossgarten 5, 91054 Erlangen, Germany

    C. Beier

  9. Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, 61 Mills Road, Building J1, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia

    D. M. Buchs

  10. Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Hankou Road 22, Nanjing 210093, China

    L-H. Chen

  11. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Queensland, Steele Building, St Lucia, Brisbane QLD 4068, Australia

    B. E. Cohen

  12. Laboratoire de Géodynamique des Chaînes Alpines, Maison des Géosciences, LGCA, Université Joseph Fourier, 1381, Rue de la Piscine, 38400 Saint Martin d’Hères, France

    F. Deschamps

  13. Department of Geology, Brigham Young University, S-335 ESC, Provo, Utah 84602, USA

    M. J. Dorais

  14. Institut für Geophysik und Extraterrestrische Physik, TU Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstrasse 3, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany

    S. Ehmann

  15. School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, Scotland EH9 3JW, UK

    J. G. Fitton

  16. Institute of Geology & Mineral Resources, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Enkhtaiwany gudamj 63, Ulaanbaatar 210351, PO Box 118, Mongolia

    E. Ganbat

  17. Geosciences Marine UMR 7154, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252 Paris, France

    C. Hamelin

  18. Institute for Frontier Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa 237-0061, Japan

    T. Hanyu & A. R. L. Nichols

  19. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK

    L. Kalnins

  20. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department, University of Nebraska, 214 Bessey Hall, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588-0340, USA

    J. Kell

  21. Department of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjyuku, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan

    S. Machida

  22. School of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1680 East–West Road, Room 606D, Honolulu, Hawai’i 96822, USA

    J. J. Mahoney

  23. Department of Earth Sciences, Waseda University, 1-6-1 Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-8050, Japan

    K. Moriya

  24. Department of Geosciences, University of Bremen, Klagenfurter Strasse, 28359 Bremen, Germany

    S. Rausch

  25. Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, 51-11 Terao, Muroko, Katsuyama, Fukui 911-8601, Japan

    S-i. Sano

  26. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, 3616 Trousdale Boulevard, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA

    J. B. Sylvan

  27. Department of Geology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

    R. Williams

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  1. Anthony A. P. Koppers
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Contributions

All authors contributed extensively to the work presented in this paper. A.A.P.K., T.Y. and J.G. led and supervised IODP Expedition 330. A.A.P.K. carried out the 40Ar/39Ar geochronology analyses. J.S.G. carried out the bootstrap analysis and Kolmogorov–Smirnov statistical tests. J.S.G., N.P. and H.H. were the shipboard palaeomagnetists collecting the inclination measurements. N.P. was responsible for additional post-cruise data quality control. A.A.P.K. and J.S.G. wrote the main paper and the Supplementary Information. All authors co-edited this manuscript. The IODP Expedition 330 Scientific Party includes all other shipboard scientists responsible for core descriptions, igneous petrology and volcanology, geochemistry, palaeontology, sedimentology, downhole logging and physical properties.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Anthony A. P. Koppers or Jörg Geldmacher.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Koppers, A., Yamazaki, T., Geldmacher, J. et al. Limited latitudinal mantle plume motion for the Louisville hotspot. Nature Geosci 5, 911–917 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1638

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