06-09-2018, 04:07 AM
quote:I like Physics Girl and what she does to popularize science concepts and convey the fun and excitement that a career in science can bring.
Originally posted by terracore
Apologies if this has already been posted, but I found this video to be a quick and concise explanation of our island chain that stretches to Siberia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0tnqPmwWvk
But she has some serious errors in this one... The mantle plume doesn't come to the surface - the vast majority of it attaches itself to base of the crust - only a small fraction of the plume actually melts and rises to the surface. The flood basalts are not discharged as a massive explosion - they are, as their name implies, massive outpourings of lava (continuous? episodic? I'm not sure that we know) accompanied by massive discharge of volcanic gases (think Leilani fissures multiplied by 100K) - big time extinction but no explosion a la Yellowstone... She might also have mentioned that the reason the mountain chain ends where it does is because there's the Aleutian trench - the older volcanoes have been subducted along with the crust that they were formed on...
I know, picky, picky - but if you're going to do these things, best to get the concepts straight...