[RadioAstronomer]

The origin of the Rockies, so called "Hot Spots",

My brother followed in my father's footsteps as a geologist. This is what exactly what his thesis addressed.

OTHO, My father's PhD thesis was about uranium in the New Mexico region.

[Strategerist]

There's actually a whole page devoted to the Hot Spot flamewar (it's as big and nasty as academic debates get, really interesting.)

http://www.mantleplumes.org/


It turns out that a lot of what were believed to be hot spots really aren't, that a lot of "hot spots" actually don't extend all the way to the mantle, and most interestingly, a lot of hot spots seem not to be fixed with respect to the plates passing over them...they wander themselves.

Origin of the Rockies is interesting in that it's a bit more complicated than most mountain ranges....they're pretty far inland. I think the most current theory is a VERY shallow subduction of the Farallon plate.

[Elsie]

OTHO, My father's PhD thesis was about uranium in the New Mexico region.

COOL!

I was the last person to visit some mines before the contractors sealed and disquised the openings in Utah (Temple Mt. area - south of I-70 about 20 miles south on UT24) a couple of years ago.

(Big Brother has to protect us, again, from rotting timbers and radon gas.)