THE HYPOTHESIS OF MANTLE PLUMES AND ITS DEVELOPMENT

After Morgan proposed the hypothesis of mantle plume, steady plume was considered as a part of mantle convection in studies based on basic egustions of fluid dynamics.Results derived from laboratory experiments on plumes driven by buoyancy resulting from compositional differences betweem the plume source layer and overlying material have only restricted application in investigations of geodynamics. From results of experiments on thermally driven plumes it has led to a new model of starting plumes in the Earth′s mantle. This model appears to explain a wide range of observations relating to continental flood basalts and oceanic volcanic(or hotspot) chains. Heat, buoyancy and material from various level in the mantle carried by the mantle plumes are key factors which must be introduced into investigations of dynamical processes in lithospherical evolution. These factors would also play an important role in explaining some dymanical processes which occur in intraplates and have moderate or small scale.