Location of Louisville hotspot and origin of Hollister ridge: geophysical constraints

The application of a new geometric technique [P. Wessel, L. Kroenke, A geom etric technique for relocating hotspots and refining absolute plate motions , Nature 387 (1997) 365-369] recently pointed to a recent change in the Pac ific plate absolute motion and suggested that the Louisville hotspot could now be located underneath the Hollister Ridge, south of the Eltanin fault s ystem. However, the pole that was proposed for the last 3 Ma does not fit t he trend of most Pacific volcanic alignments, supporting geochemical eviden ce [I. Vlastelic, L. Dosso, H. Guillou, L. Geli, H. Bougault, J. Etoubleau, J.-L. Joron, Geochemistry of the Hollister Ridge: relation with the Louisv ille hotspot and the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, Earth Planet. Sci. Let. 160 ( 1998) 777-793] that does not favor a genetic relationship between the Louis ville hotspot and the Hollister Ridge. We propose a pole near 57 degrees N, 100 degrees W that reconciles kinematic models with a previously proposed location [P. Lonsdale, Geography and history of the Louisville hotspot chai n in the Southwest Pacific, J. Geophys. Res 93 (1988) 3078-3104] for the Lo uisville hotspot (near a Pleistocene volcano dredged at 50.5 degrees S, 139 .2 degrees W) and claim that the Hollister Ridge most probably results from intraplate deformation processes. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All right s reserved.