Quantification of Plate Motion Relative to the Hotspots

该项目正在调查构造板块相对于热点的运动，热点是许多人认为起源于地球深处的火山活动的持续地点。 热点火山的例子包括夏威夷大岛上的基拉韦厄火山的活火山活动，冰岛及其附近的活火山活动，以及黄石国家公园的火山活动。 目前正在估计自6 800万年前以来构造板块相对于热点的运动情况，并使用该项目开发的新方法估计这种运动的不确定性。 这些不确定性正被用来估计若干预测的不确定性，例如，利用太平洋板块相对于热点的运动来预测努比亚（西非）板块相对于热点的运动。 这些预测及其不确定性正被用来检验若干假设，包括大西洋海盆的热点相对于太平洋海盆的热点是静止的这一假设。 这将提供有关地球深处运动的重要信息，从而提供有关地球内部驱动过程的基本知识。 为估计这些不确定性而开发的新方法将被广泛提供，以便其他研究人员可以随时使用。

This project is investigating the motion of the tectonic plates relative to the hotspots, which are persistent locations of volcanism thought by many to originate deep in the Earth. Examples of hotspot volcanoes include active volcanism at Kilauea volcano on the big island of Hawaii, active volcanism at and near Iceland, and volcanism in Yellowstone National Park. The motion of the tectonic plates relative to the hotspots since 68 million years ago are being estimated as are the uncertainty in estimates of that motion using new methods developed in the project. These uncertainties are being used to estimate uncertainties of several predictions, for example, using the motion of the Pacific plate relative to the hotspots to predict the motion of the Nubian (West African) plate relative to the hotspots. These predictions and their uncertainties are being used to test several hypotheses including the hypothesis that hotspots in the Atlantic Ocean basin are stationary relative to those in the Pacific Ocean basin. This will provide important information about motions deep within the planet and thus provide fundamental knowledge about internally driven Earth processes. The new methods developed for estimating these uncertainties will are being made widely available so that they can be readily used by other researchers.