Dear WM, The list of plume types, last updated in 2007, comprises fossil, dying, recycled, tabular, finger-like, baby, channelled, toroidal, head-free, cold, depleted residual, pulsating, throbbing, subduction-fluid fluxed, refractory, zoned, cavity, diapiric, starting, impact, incubating, incipient, splash, passive, petit, primary, real, secondary, satellite, strong, weak, tilted, parasite, thermo-chemical, asymmetric, fluid dynamic, depleted, stealth, lateral, CMB, shallow, 670-, mega-, super-, mini-, cacto, cold-head, headless, implausible (IMP), and plumelet.

It is ironic that Paul Tackley, in his review of P^3 in Science, criticized non-plume theories on the grounds that there are so many "special cases"!–Don Anderson

Dear WM, I would like to bring to your attention our new invited review paper Franke, D., Rifting, lithosphere breakup and volcanism: Comparison of magma-poor and volcanic rifted margins, Marine and Petroleum Geology (2012).

Key points are:

• Reevaluation of volcanism during rifting and continental breakup;
• Magma-poor and volcanic rifted end-member margin types are discussed;
• Study of the Laptev Sea, the South China Sea and the southern South Atlantic;
• Implications on the formation of rift-onset and breakup unconformities;
• A major controlling mode of hot-spot related mantle processes cannot be observed.

–Dieter Franke

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