Schematic of the Hawaiian Hot Spot

Kilauea and Loihi share the Hawaiian hot spot with their larger active sibling Mauna Loa. With time, the motion of the Pacific Plate has brought Loihi closer to the center of the hot spot and (possibly) moved Mauna Loa away from it's center. This situation is depicted by these schematic figures for the present time and for 100,000 to 200,000 years ago. These are schematic diagrams only, meant to show how one plume might feed these three different magmatic centers. It is worth noting that although generally similar, there are distinct compositional attributes of basalts erupted at Mauna Loa, Kilauea and Loihi, indicating that the way in which each volcano "samples" the hot spot is slightly different.



TODAY:

             Mauna Loa
             -----
            /  x  \
          /    x    \   Kilauea
        /      x      /\
 -----/----------------x\----------- sea level
    /          x       x  \    _
  /            x       x    \ / \
/               x      x      \x  \  Loihi
                 x     x       x\   \
                  x    x       x      \
                  x    x      x           \
                   x   x     x               \
                    x x x   x
                    xxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxx
                   xxxxxxxxxxx


100Ka-200Ka: 
(Ka is geologist-speak for thousands of years before present)

             Mauna Loa
             -----
            /  x  \
          /    x    \   Kilauea
        /      x      /\
 -----/----------------x\----------- sea level
    /          x       x  \    _
  /            x       x    \ / \
/              x      x      \x  \  Loihi
               x     x       x\   \
                x    x       x      \
                x    x      x          \
                x   x     x                \
                 x x x   x
                 xxxxxxxxx
                xxxxxxxxxxx
                xxxxxxxxxxx

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Last page update on 22 March 1998