Abstract
The causes of volcanism in the northwestern United States over the past 20 million years are strongly contested1. Three drivers have been proposed: melting associated with plate subduction2,3; tectonic extension and magmatism resulting from rollback of a subducting slab4,5,6; or the Yellowstone mantle plume7,8,9. Observations of the opposing age progression of two neighbouring volcanic chains—the Snake River Plain and High Lava Plains—are often used to argue against a plume origin for the volcanism. Plumes are likely to occur near subduction zones10, yet the influence of subduction on the surface expression of mantle plumes is poorly understood. Here we use experiments with a laboratory model to show that the patterns of volcanism in the northwestern United States can be explained by a plume upwelling through mantle that circulates in the wedge beneath a subduction zone. We find that the buoyant plume may be stalled, deformed and partially torn apart by mantle flow induced by the subducting plate. Using plausible model parameters, bifurcation of the plume can reproduce the primary volcanic features observed in the northwestern United States, in particular the opposite progression of two volcanic chains. Our results support the presence of the Yellowstone plume in the northwestern United States, and also highlight the power of plume–subduction interactions to modify surface geology at convergent plate margins.
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Acknowledgements
Experiments were conducted at the GFD Laboratory at the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University. We thank T. Beasley for technical assistance and acknowledge support from National Science Foundation grants EAR-0652512 and EAR-0506857. We also thank HLP project participants for useful scientific discussions and H. Gao for assistance generating Fig. 1a.
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C.K. and R.W.G. designed and performed the laboratory modelling. C.K. and K.A.D. processed the output and data. All authors contributed to writing and the development of ideas for placing results within a larger Earth sciences context.
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Kincaid, C., Druken, K., Griffiths, R. et al. Bifurcation of the Yellowstone plume driven by subduction-induced mantle flow. Nature Geosci 6, 395–399 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1774
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1774
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