A swarm of volcanoes in Virginia and West Virginia, most notably Trimble Knob in Highland County and Mole Hill near Harrisonburg, are only 47-48 million years old and not the product of hotspots or traditional plate tectonics, according to Sarah Mazza as reported on LiveScience’s Amazing Planet on April 29, 2014. Instead the volcanoes appear to be the result upwelling through layers of Earth’s crust peeled back by delamination of the crust beneath Virginia, which may also be responsible recent uplift and the current ruggedness of the Appalachian Mountains despite their ancient origins.
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