Lithosphere-Asthenosphere boundary a thermal control of oceanic-lithosphere thickness. The continental lithosphere contains an ancient, stable part known as the craton. The LAB is particularly difficult to study in these regions and evidence suggests that the lithosphere within this old part of the continent is at it thickest and even appears to exhibit large variations in thickness beneath the cratons, thus supporting the theory that lithosphere thickness and LAB depth are age-dependent. Depths of the LAB beneath these regions (also known as shields and platforms) are estimated to be between 200 and 250 km deep. Beneath Phanerozoic continental crust, the LAB is roughly
Geology of the Pacific Northwest spot, an extremely hot plume of deep mantle material, is rising to the surface beneath the Columbia Plateau Province. Geologists know that beneath Hawaii and Iceland, a temperature instability develops (for reasons not yet well understood) at the boundary between the core and mantle. The concentrated heat triggers a plume hundreds of kilometers in diameter that ascends directly through to the surface of the Earth. When the hot plume arrives at the base of the lithosphere, some of the lighter rock of the lithosphere rapidly melts. It is this molten lithosphere that becomes the basalt lavas that gush onto the