Mesoplates and the Origin of Hotspots: A Top-Down Model

Since Morgan published the first hotspot motion model for the Pacific in 1972, the formal conversation among researchers evolved into a debate as to whether hotspots do indeed define a single, fixed, internal reference frame. However, discrepancies between Atlantic-Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean sets became the primary focus of attention. In just the past few years, some workers have begun to write in terms of two or three separate reference frames. If there are two or three distinct hotspot reference frames — mesoplates — this presents interesting problems for the deep mantle plume hypothesis. Perhaps it is time to consider the implications of a few distinct hotspot frames for the origin of hotspots.