The Balleny hotspot is a

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

hotspot located in the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

. The hotspot created the

Balleny Islands The Balleny Islands () are a series of uninhabited islands in the Southern Ocean extending from 66°15' to 67°35'S and 162°30' to 165°00'E. The group extends for about in a northwest-southeast direction. The islands are heavily glaciated an ...

, which forms a chain that extends for about in a northwest-southeast direction. Due to plate tectonics the hot spot was under different parts of the ocean bed in the past, and this has resulted in a chain of

seamount A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...

s extending from the

East Tasman Plateau The East Tasman Plateau is a submerged microcontinent south east of Tasmania. Its area is , and it is mostly from deep. It is a circular piece of continental rocks surrounded by oceanic crust. Volcanism occurred there .C. Gaina, R. D. Müller, ...

. Isotopes and trace elements in the volcanic rocks indicated a high U/Pb mantle source. The same pattern is seen in basalt from

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, but not from Victoria.

References

Hotspots of the Southern Ocean Geography of the Balleny Islands {{marine-geo-stub