How is the Yellowstone hot spot linked to the Columbia River basalts?

The Yellowstone hot spot and the Columbia River basalts are linked through the movement of the North American Plate over a stationary mantle plume.123

Geologists suggest that the Columbia Plateau basalts, which formed between 17 and 14 million years ago, represent massive flood basalts associated with the initial establishment or early activity of this mantle plume. As the North American Plate drifted over the stationary heat source, the locus of magmatism migrated eastward. This migration created a volcanic track across the region, forming the Snake River lava plain and eventually leading to the current position of the Yellowstone volcanic center.124

While the Columbia River basalts represent an extensive, early phase of flood volcanism, the subsequent movement of the continent over the same plume resulted in the distinct, younger volcanic features observed in the Snake River basin and the Yellowstone caldera today.24