Hotspot Track: Mantle Plume vs. Plate Motion (2D)

Fixed mantle plumes are one of the clearest natural odometers geologists have: because a plume's melting point barely moves relative to the deep mantle, the chain of volcanoes it leaves behind as a plate slides overhead records that plate's exact speed, direction, and history of direction changes — like a pen held still while paper is dragged beneath it. This top-down 2D companion to the 3D simulation renders that process as a map: steer plate speed and direction and watch a real seamount chain grow, aging each edifice from an actively erupting cone through a cooling extinct island to a subsided, sea-drowned guyot using the same age–distance and thermal-subsidence relationships used to date real hotspot tracks such as the Hawaiian–Emperor chain. Drag to pan the map and scroll to zoom.