Solved cryptogram
The Hawaiian islands are strung out in a line because the plate moved and the heat did not.
Earth Science Facts, sourced to U.S. National Park Service.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 73 letters over 19 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
A hot spot is a plume of rising material anchored well below the moving plates. It burns through the plate above and builds a volcano; the plate slides on; the volcano is carried away and goes quiet while a new one starts over the same source. The result is a chain with the active end at one tip and drowned, eroded seamounts trailing behind. Reading the ages along that chain gives the speed and direction of the plate.
The claim comes from U.S. National Park Service.
- SourceU.S. National Park Service
- CollectionEarth Science Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length73 letters, 19 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
- U.S. National Park Servicemedium, 72 letters
- U.S. National Park Servicemedium, 77 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 71 letters
- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 74 letters
About as hard as this one
Scored closest to it by the model behind our guide to solving cryptograms.
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- U.S. Geological Surveymedium, 78 letters
- NOAAmedium, 74 letters
- NOAAmedium, 74 letters