Migration of volcanism with time in the Marquesas Islands,French Polynesia

Samples from five islands of the Marquesas Island chain (southeast Pacific Ocean) have been dated by the K-Ar method and exhibit a northwest to southeast volcanic migration rate of 9.9 cm/yr. This movement is in the same direction but of intermediate magnitude to results from the Austral Island chain (lower rate) and the Hawaiian Island chain (considerably higher rate). The rate of migration of volcanism in the Marquesas Islands is consistent with the model of rigid Pacific plate movement over a fixed “hot spot” or mantle “plume” provided that the pole of rotation for the Pacific plate for the last 5 my is located near 55°S, 170°E.