Region of the Earth's upper mantle that upwells to melt through the crust to form a volcanic feature. Most volcanoes that cannot be ascribed either to a subduction zone or to seafloor spreading at midocean ridges are attributed to hot spots.
The 5% of known world volcanoes not closely related to such plate margins (&see; plate tectonics) are regarded as hot-spot volcanoes. Hawaiian volcanoes are the best examples of this type, occurring near the centre of the northern portion of the Pacific Plate. A chain of extinct volcanoes or volcanic islands (and seamounts), such as the Hawaiian chain, can form over millions of years where a lithospheric plate moves over a hot spot. The active volcanoes all lie at one end of the chain or ridge, and the ages of the islands or the ridge increase with their distance from those sites of volcanic activity.
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