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The 'East Australia hotspot' is a volcanic hotspot in Eastern Australia that feeds magma to the volcanoes of Australia. The East Australia hotspot takes advantage of weak spots in the Indo-Australian Plate to feed lava to the volcanoes of Eastern Australia. The East Australia hotspot does not produce a single chain of volcanoes like the Hawaiian Islands. Tweed volcano, in New South Wales is a large, ancient shield volcano that was formed by the hotspot about 23 million years ago, and it has one of the biggest calderas in the world. The most recent eruption was at the Newer Volcanics Province forming the volcanoes Mount Schank, Mount Gambier and Mount Napier about 5,000 years ago.
Unlike most hotspots, the East Australia hotspot is an explosive hotspot, unlike the runny lava flows of the Hawaii hotspot, Iceland hotspot and the Réunion hotspot. The hotspot is explosive because basaltic magma is trapped in the less dense continental crust, which is heated and melts to form rhyolites. These rhyolites can be quite hot and form violent eruptions, despite their low water content.

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See also

See also

★ List of volcanoes in Australia

★ hotspot