Pacific plate motion change caused the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend

Trond H Torsvik1,2,3,4, Pavel V Doubrovine1, Bernhard Steinberger1,2

  • 1Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, 0315 Oslo, Norway.

Summary

The Hawaiian-Emperor Bend resulted from a Pacific plate motion change around 47 million years ago, not solely from Hawaiian hotspot drift. Southward hotspot movement influenced seamount positions but did not cause the bend itself.

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