I've been looking at a map of the American West, and the Snake River
line (very strongly suspected to be the track of the Yellowstone Hot
Spot as the North American Plate slid westward across it) has 'cut'
its way almost all the way through the mountainous regions.
What I was wondering was whether it's like that the Hot Spot activity
will change when it gets into the flatter lands east of the mountains
(or rather when the flat lands reach the hot spot). Would a resurgant
caldera in the great plains behave in any significant way differently
than one in the mountains? The underlying mechanisms should be the
same, what I was asking was about non-intuitive developments that are
likely.
