Abstract
Combinations of global plate reconstructions reveal average velocities for the last 50 to 65 million years of 10 to 20 mm yr−1 between the Hawaiian hotspot and those beneath Iceland, Tristan da Cunha, Réunion, St. Paul's Island, and Kerguelen. Therefore hotspots do not define a fixed reference frame. Uncertainties in these reconstructions are less than the errors incurred by assuming fixed hotspots and less than the differences among various proposed frames of reference of fixed hotspots1–3.
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Molnar, P., Stock, J. Relative motions of hotspots in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans since late Cretaceous time. Nature 327, 587–591 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1038/327587a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/327587a0
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