A major puzzle in Earth science is how to explain the groups of volcanoes that don´t line up with subduction zones. These volcanic regions, called hotspots, occur in random-looking locations and don´t seem to move with any connection to the crustal plates. The prevailing theory about them is that magma bubbles straight up from deep in the mantle in hot columns called plumes. But a school of vigorous dissenters has been arguing for a top-down model of hotspots based on cooling from above, not heating from below.

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