Intraplate seamounts research

Basalt rock being collected by Tiburon's mechanical arm on Davidson Seamount off California.
Photo © 2000 MBARI

Larger version
Sheet flow at President Jackson Seamounts, which have complex, nested calderas.
Photo © 2000 MBARI

Intraplate seamount volcanism is of different types

Many chains of seamounts (submerged mountains) are of hot spot or subduction arc origin. However, some intraplate seamounts have different origins. Near-ridge seamounts erupted near the axes of mid-ocean ridges onto recently derived oceanic crust. In the north-east Pacific, these include the Vance and President Jackson seamounts near the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges, respectively, and the Taney Seamounts off San Francisco, which are no longer associated with an active spreading center (map, 50 kb). Some isolated seamounts and other linear seamount chains have erupted onto much older oceanic crust, and their formation is enigmatic: they do not appear to have erupted as hot spot volcanoes or near-ridge seamounts, and they are not associated with subduction processes. Examples of these include Davidson, Pioneer, and Guide seamounts (map, 118 kb) near the California coast, and the Line Islands chain in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Note that our work at Axial Seamount is covered in the Mid-ocean Ridge section.

In these pages: our research on seamounts

Near-ridge seamounts
Continental margin seamounts
Non-hot-spot linear chains
Eclectic topics

Note that more seamounts are discussed in other section of this web.

Lo'ihi Seamount appears in the Hot Spots section in Magmatic processes, Hydrothermal activity and Explosive eruptions, and the process that formed the seamounts to the northeast of Oahu is presented in Landslides.
Axial Volcano appears in the Mid-Ocean Ridge section in Volcanic processes and Explosive eruptions, and in our work with the Mapping AUV.

A special volume of the journal of The Oceanography Society is focused on seamounts, and is available for free download. Articles to which we contributed:

Geological history of deep-sea volcanoes
Seamount spotlight: Axial Volcano
Seamount spotlight: Loihi Seamount
Seamount spotlight: Davidson Seamount

Intraplate seamount volcanism is of different types

In these pages: our research on seamounts

Related links