This suggests a hot upper mantle in the same region.
These plates, which float on the hot, sticky mantle below, are constantly moving.
Thus, although unusually low wave speeds have been taken to indicate anomalously hot mantle beneath "hot spots", this interpretation is ambiguous.
The water and rock get heated by Earth's hot mantle or by radioactive minerals in the rock.
The numerous rigid plates that form the Earth's surface float on a hot, viscous mantle.
As the rigid lithosphere pushes down into the hot, high-pressure mantle, it heats up.
From deep within the Earth, hot mantle rises to force doming of the crust.
The Earth's crust is composed of scores of relatively rigid plates that float on a hot, viscous mantle below.
The rock formation is what's called a flood basalt, thought to be caused by a plume of hot mantle breaking through to the surface.
The tremendous forces at work in the lower continental foundation caused the European base to bend downward into the hot mantle and soften.