Thread: You heard it here first (I think) -- Hotspot volcanic zones caused by impacts.

OK, I am just a small town newspaper editor who happens to love science.
I also happen to live in a huge caldera.

The news about the huge volcano found under the northwest Pacific got me think about an idea that has been bothering me for years.

Hotspot volcanic zones (not associated with subduction zones).
These would include Yellowstone and Hawaii.

So my hypothesis says a huge object hit the Earth, and I mean big. Enough to rattle the crust to the mantle, thus creating the hotspot.

As the tectonic plates pass over, the hotspot appears to drift, as in Yellowstone migrating to Wyoming and the Hawaiian chain.

Does this make sense?

There is no evidence of any impacts of that magnitude associated with any of the hotspots.

As seen above the volcanos form from the Earths core not something that impacted the Earth.

Originally Posted by markesper

So my hypothesis says a huge object hit the Earth, and I mean big. Enough to rattle the crust to the mantle, thus creating the hotspot.

There are 39 hotspots listed on Wiki.
That would be an awful lot of large impacts.
And, as Paleoichneum points out, there would be evidence of so many huge impacts.