National Geographic News, Reporting Your World Daily

Monday, November 23, 2009

Photo: Earth's Hot Spots Keep Continents Afloat, Study Says


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Earth's continents are kept buoyant by hot spots, warm regions of rock in the top layer of the planet's surface.

If these areas did not exist, many American cities—such as the metropolises listed above—would be thousands of feet under water.

Graphic by Miranda Mulligan