Fig. 4: Paleolatitude predictions and plume source motion.

a Simulated paleolatitudes of the Hawaii-Emperor seamounts. Orange dots with error bars (95% confidence limits) are data by Woodworth and Gordon³⁸. Blue dots are data (95% confidence limits) from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)³ and Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) boreholes⁷. Purple points are paleolatitudes estimated by correcting plate motion effects from the present Hawaii chain using the reconstruction of Müller et al. ¹¹. The red line is the paleolatitude calculated from Model 1. Paleolatitudes of subducted seamounts are shown as the red dashed line (see “Method”). The green line is the paleolatitude calculated from Model 2. The northward velocity of the Pacific Plate is shown in the cyan dashed line¹¹. The gray dashed line is the latitude of the plume source trajectory from Model 2. b The best-fitting lateral trajectory of the plume root is sourced at ~ 600 km depth (Model 2). The trajectory contains two linear motions during 80–47 Ma and 47-0 Ma. The cumulative southward plume source movement is about 7° since 80 Ma. 120 Ma is the starting time of our simulated plume source, and the plume is stagnant before 80 Ma.