How does a volcanic chain, such as the Hawaiian Islands, become an aseismic ridge? Does it have anything to do with plates moving below?

-- pat kinsella (pkinsell@oswego.edu), February 21, 2001

Answers

got this from http://www.britannica.com

Most aseismic ridges are constructed by volcanism from a hot spot and are composed of coalescing volcanoes of various sizes. Recall that a hot spot is a magma-generating centre fixed in the Earth's deep mantle and leaves a trail of volcanic outpourings on the seafloor as an oceanic plate travels over it. The Hawaiian-Emperor chain is the best displayed aseismic ridge. Earthquakes do occur here, but only at the end of the ridge where volcanism is current--in this case, on the island of Hawaii (commonly known as the Big Island) to the southeast end of the island chain. Hope that answers ur question....the basic idea here I think is that the hot spots of the volcanoes of hawaii form an aseismic ridge.

-- Joel Bouchard (jboucha1@oswego.edu), March 13, 2001.