Bilateral Loa-Kea trends of the Hawaiian Islands caused by the bottom-up splitting of plume conduit.

ABSTRACT: The Hawaiian-Emperor chain has exhibited two distinct Loa-Kea magmatic groups over the past 8 million years, but their origin remains debated. Using paleographically constrained global mantle convection models, we reproduce the present-day location of the Hawaiian hot spot and the associated spatiotemporal geochemical evolution. The composition of the plume conduit shows conventional concentric zoning prior to the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend and gradually evolves to a north-south bilateral zoning pattern afterward, corresponding to the subparallel Loa-Kea trends. Further analysis suggests that the plume originates from ridges of large low-velocity province (LLVP) induced by the push of slabs. Upwelling at the intersections of ridges is more energetic than at the middle of the ridge, causing bott

SUBMITTER: Zhang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12829567 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature