Trindade hotspot

It was considered that the supposed hot-spot should be responsible for the creation of the east-west trending Vitória-Trindade seamount chain, which includes the Trindade and Martim Vaz archipelago at its easternmost end.

Trindade, a small island in the archipelago, is the hotspot's most recent eruptive center.

However, the volcanic chain direction is E-W and the absolute motion vector of the South America Plate is NW.

Recent research papers, such as Skoletnev, Peyve & Truko 2010 and Motoki, Motoki & Melo 2012, proposed that the hot mantle penetrated horizontally along the Vitória-Trindade fracture zone which is present in the lithospheric mantle.

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