hot spot

hot spot
1. a country or region where dangerous or difficult political situations exist or may erupt, esp. where a war, revolution, or a belligerent attitude toward other countries exists or may develop: In the 1960s, Vietnam became a hot spot.
2. Informal. any area or place of known danger, intrigue, dissension, or instability.
3. Informal. a nightclub.
4. Photog. an area of a negative or print revealing excessive light on that part of the subject.
5. a section of forest or woods where fires frequently occur.
6. an area hotter than the surrounding surface, as on the shell of a furnace.
7. Physics. an area of abnormally high radioactivity.
8. Geol. a region of molten rock below and within the lithosphere that persists long enough to leave a record of uplift and volcanic activity at the earth's surface. Cf. plume (def. 10).
9. Genetics. a chromosome site or a section of DNA having a high frequency of mutation or recombination.
10. Vet. Pathol. a moist, raw sore on the skin of a dog or cat caused by constant licking of an irritation from an allergic reaction, tangled coat, fleas, etc.
Also, hotspot.
[1925-30, Amer.]

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Region of the Earth's upper mantle that upwells to melt through the crust to form a volcanic feature.

Most volcanoes that cannot be ascribed either to a subduction zone or to seafloor spreading at midocean ridges are attributed to hot spots. The 5% of known world volcanoes not closely related to such plate margins (see plate tectonics) are regarded as hot-spot volcanoes. Hawaiian volcanoes are the best examples of this type, occurring near the centre of the northern portion of the Pacific Plate. A chain of extinct volcanoes or volcanic islands (and seamounts), such as the Hawaiian chain, can form over millions of years where a lithospheric plate moves over a hot spot. The active volcanoes all lie at one end of the chain or ridge, and the ages of the islands or the ridge increase with their distance from those sites of volcanic activity.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Hot spot — (englisch heiße Stelle) steht für: eine lokal begrenzte Pyodermie (Hautentzündung) Hotspot der Biodiversität, Region mit hoher, stark bedrohter Artenvielfalt Hotspot (Datenbanken) Hot Spot (Fotovoltaik), ein Bereich eines Solarzellenmoduls… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hot Spot — oder Hotspot (englisch wörtlich „heiße Stelle“, sinngemäß Brennpunkt) steht für: eine lokal begrenzte Hautentzündung, siehe Pyotraumatische Dermatitis Biodiversitäts Hotspot, eine Region mit hoher, stark bedrohter Artenvielfalt Hotspot… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Hot Spot — Hot Spot[1] (The Hot Spot) est un film américain de Dennis Hopper sorti en 1990. Basé sur le roman Hell Hath No Fury de Charles Williams, c est un film policier marqué d une lourde charge érotique (son accroche anglo saxonne était A scorchingly… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • hot-spot — /hot spot /, v.t., hot spotted, hot spotting. to stop (a forest fire) at a hot spot. [1950 55; v. use of HOT SPOT] * * * …   Universalium

  • hot spot — hot spots also hotspot 1) N COUNT You can refer to an exciting place where there is a lot of activity or entertainment as a hot spot. [INFORMAL] ...a fancy Manhattan hot spot. ...a popular and lively package tour hotspot. 2) N COUNT You can refer …   English dictionary

  • hot spot — hot|spot [ˈhɔtspɔt US ˈha:tspa:t] n 1.) a place where there is a lot of heat or ↑radiation ▪ Many microwaves heat unevenly, leading to hot spots in the milk. ▪ Hot spots of radioactivity were found near the power station. 2.) a place that is… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • hot spot — also hotspot, 1888 as a skin irritation; 1931 as nightclub; 1938 in the firefighting sense; 1941 as place of international conflict. See HOT (Cf. hot) (adj.) + SPOT (Cf. spot) (n.) …   Etymology dictionary

  • hot spot — hot′ spot or hot′spot n. 1) gov a country or region where dangerous or difficult political situations exist or may develop 2) inf any area or place of known danger, instability, etc 3) inf Informal. a nightclub 4) gen a chromosome site or a… …   From formal English to slang

  • hot spot — hot spot. См. горячая точка. (Источник: «Англо русский толковый словарь генетических терминов». Арефьев В.А., Лисовенко Л.А., Москва: Изд во ВНИРО, 1995 г.) …   Молекулярная биология и генетика. Толковый словарь.

  • hot spot — n 1) a patch of painful moist inflamed skin on a domestic animal and esp. a dog that starts as a response to a skin irritant (as an allergen or an insect or tick bite), that is rapidly worsened by scratching, chewing, or licking the affected area …   Medical dictionary

  • hot spot — UK US (also hotspot) noun [C] INTERNET ► a public place where people can use computers, mobile phones, etc. with wi fi (= a system for connecting electronic equipment to the internet without using wires): »There are wi fi hotspots in all our… …   Financial and business terms

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