Abstract

Hot plumes rising from the Earth’s deep mantle are believed to form broad plume heads beneath lithospheric plates, causing uplift, rifting, and volcanism. However, the mechanisms governing plume-lithosphere interactions remain poorly understood. Using seismic waveform tomography, we image interconnected corridors of hot, partially molten rock beneath the East Africa-Arabia region. These corridors, underlying zones of uplift, rifting, and dispersed volcanism, form an active plume head shaped like a three-pointed star. Eruption ages, seismic anisotropy, and plate reconstructions suggest this plume head evolved from south to north, fed by three deep mantle upwellings beneath Kenya, Afar, and the Levant. The resulting large-scale mantle flow, combined with subduction-driven forces, drives the lateral motion of the Anatolian microplate and the dynamic evolution of the Zagros orogen. Our findings demonstrate how plate tectonics and mantle dynamics together govern regional kinematics and surface deformation. Star-shaped plume heads in thin-lithosphere corridors are essential features of plume-continent interactions, shedding light on the dispersed volcanism observed in large igneous provinces, both past and present.