[ken5050]

Obviously another effect of global warming...the "El Nino" pushed the hot spots a few feet, no doubt..

[Psalm 73]

"The reference frame that we were all hanging onto turns out to have legs it can move around on"

Might this not be true for other fields of science, too?
Things that science thought to be inviolate such as evolution and anthropology.
Psychology has already proven to be widely mistaken in some of its "reference frame" facts,
and now geology has been added to that list.

[NoCurrentFreeperByThatName]

Thanks for another interesting post.

[Dog Gone]

Hmmmm, interesting. I'm not sure I buy it, though. There's not any question that the Hawaiian hot spot created the islands in a fairly linear fashion, and it's quite apparent that the Yellowstone hotspot one was under southern Idaho.

The changes in the magnetic field orientation could just as easily be explained by shift in the Magnetic North Pole. We know for a fact that there have been polarity shifts over geologic time and the current location of the Magnetic North Pole isn't even over the geologic North Pole.

Unless they can rule out these kinds of wobbles, I don't think I'm convinced.

[RightWhale]

If the islands had all formed in the same place, over a stationary hot spot, they should all have the same magnetic fingerprint

There is a fly in the ointment. Earth's magnetic field does not seem to be constant. In fact it changes from day to day.