Introduction to Special Section: Hawaii Scientific Drilling Project

Intraplate or “hot spot” volcanic island chains, exemplified by Hawaii, play an important role in plate tectonic theory as reference points for absolute plate motions, but the origin of these volcanoes is not explained by the plate tectonic paradigm [Engebretson et al., 1985; Molnar and Stock, 1987; Morgan, 1971, 1981, 1983; Wilson, 1963]. The most widely held view is that these chains of volcanoes form from magma generated by decompression melting of localized, buoyant upwellings in the mantle [Ribe and Christensen, 1994; Richards et al., 1988; Sleep, 1990; Watson and McKenzie, 1991]. These upwellings, or “plumes,” are believed to originate at boundary layers in the mantle (e.g., at the core-mantle boundary or near the boundary at ∼670 km between the upper and lower mantle), and the cause of the buoyancy may be both compositional and thermal [Campbell and Griffiths, 1990; Griffiths, 1986; Richards et al., 1988; Watson and McKenzie, 1991]. Mantle plumes are responsible for about 10% of the Earth's heat loss and constitute an important mechanism for cycling mass from the deep mantle to the Earth's surface.