[Rockhounds] Hawaii's Moving Hot Spot

[Pmodreski at aol.com]

Hi again Dick,
 
Since the several island chains all appear to take a similar bend, I would  
think that IS due to a change in motion of the entire Pacific Plate, and that  
the (newly proposed) independent motion of the Hawaiian would be a 
second-order  phenomenon, superimposed on that.  Presumably the authors of that new  
research are looking at these comparative things and taking them into account in  
what they propose... probably, one will need to read their complete paper, 
when  it is published, to see the details.
 
One could have students compare the motions of those several different  
island chains, and then see if there are indeed any discrepancies that could be  
used to infer independent motions of the different hot spots.  Perhaps,  this 
"southward drift of the hot spot" is not as firm an interpretation as the  
authors would like to think... I'm always reasonably skeptical about new  theories, 
because they don't always pan out.
 
Pete



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