mantle plume

American

noun

Geology.

plume.

mantle plume British

noun

another name for plume

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of mantle plume

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

mantle plume

Known as a mantle plume, this steady column of molten rock originates far below the surface.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026

The team believes this was an early offshoot of what is now the Azores mantle plume.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 23, 2026

It has already identified new seamounts in the northeast Atlantic Ocean that could help track the evolution of the mantle plume that feeds Iceland’s volcanoes.

From Science Magazine ● Apr. 18, 2023

The idea that covers the most ground, literally, is a mantle plume.

From Scientific American ● Jan. 5, 2023

Since time immemorial, a deeply rooted fountain of superheated rock known as a mantle plume has been torching the underside of the Pacific tectonic plate.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 22, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023