Prof. Richard G Gordon from Rice University visited the Expert Forum of CUG

(Correspondents Jiang Xuelong , Xu Huiru) In the afternoon of January 10, at the invitation of Professor Wang Yanxin, President of China University of Geosciences and Professor Xiong Xiong of the Institute of Geophysics & Geomatics，Professor Richard G. Gordon from Rice University visited the school, and made an academic report of "Motion Between Hotspots (Slower than you thought), Origin of the Hawaiian-Emperor Bend, Ture Polar Wander, and Possible Links to Cenozoic Global Climate Change" in the Academic Lecture Hall of the East District. Nearly 100 teachers and students attended the lecture.

The hotspot is the manifestation of the mantle plume on the surface. However, the stability of the hotspot has always been controversial. One view argues that there is no significant relative movement between the hot spot and the deep mantle, and another argues that there is relative movement between the hot spot and the mantle and between different hot spots. The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain has obvious two-phase movement direction, and its cause has attracted widespread attention from the international scientific community for a long time. Prof. Gordon and his team used a comprehensive geophysical method to systematically study the formation of the island chain. They believe that the Hawaii hotspot has not undergone rapid displacement relative to the deep mantle. When the Hawaiian Island and Emperor Island chains were formed, the hotspots were respectively fixed at different ancient latitudes and were different from the current latitudes. The two latitude changes may be related to True polar wander. This true polar shift event may have some internal connection with the global cooling in the Cenozoic. After the report, Professor Richard G. Gordon had a lively discussion with the teachers and students present on hot spots, mantle plumes, and plate motion.