The formation and evolution of oceanic hotspots and island volcanoes depend on several factors: plate speed, ocean floor age and thickness, mantle temperature, and composition. While most island chains, like those in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, formed on fast-moving plates and show clear age patterns, the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic are different. They lie on a nearly stationary plate, making them a rare example of a hotspot in a slow-moving setting.

Cape Verde sits atop the Cape Verde Rise—a massive, 1600 km wide and 2 km high underwater plateau, the largest of its kind in the oceans. Its origin remains uncertain. Because the plate beneath Cape Verde moves very little, the islands are closely spaced with only weak age progression. Their volcanoes can remain intermittently active for up to 25 million years, with magma intrusions over time pushing the land upward and even exposing oceanic crust.

Cape Verde's volcanic rocks also show signs of low-degree melting beneath thick lithosphere, producing highly alkaline, low-silica magmas. Rare carbonatite rocks occur —seen in only one other oceanic location. These unique features make Cape Verde a key site to study long-term volcanic island development and magma-crust interactions.