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Old 20-February-2004, 02:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by harlequin
Is Olympus Mons so big due to less erosion and no plate tectonics to move it away from a hot spot?
I always heard that it was the lack of plat tectonics, so it just stayed in one spot. The Hawaiian islands are the perfect example of a plate moving over a hot spot. So how big would the single Hawaiian island been if the plate didn't move! I hadn't thought about less errosion, interesting idea. I wasn't particularly thinking of a big, single erruption, but I wonder if there was an exposed lava lake (sea, pond) at the top of the caldera. If it was proportional, it would have been huge.
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