| Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain | |
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Elevation of the Pacific seafloor, showing the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain stretching northwest from the Hawaiian Islands |
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| Location | |
| Location | North Pacific Ocean |
The Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain is composed of the Hawaiian ridge, consisting of the islands of the Hawaiian chain northwest to Kure Atoll, and the Emperor Seamounts: together they form a vast underwater mountain region of islands and intervening seamounts, atolls, shallows, banks and reefs along a line trending southeast to northwest beneath the northern Pacific Ocean. The seamount chain, containing over 80 identified undersea volcanoes, stretches over 5,800 kilometres (3,600 mi) from the Aleutian Trench in the far northwest Pacific to the Loʻihi seamount, the youngest volcano in the chain, which lies about 35 kilometres (22 mi) southeast of the Island of Hawaiʻi. The Hawaiian Islands are that portion of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain that projects above sea level.
The oldest age for the Emperor Seamounts is 81 million years, and comes from Detroit Seamount. However, Meiji Guyot, located to the north of Detroit Seamount, is likely somewhat older.
In 1963, geologist John Tuzo Wilson hypothesized the origins of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, explaining that they were created by a hotspot of volcanic activity that was essentially stationary as the Pacific tectonic plate drifted in a northwesterly direction, leaving a trail of increasingly eroded volcanic islands and seamounts in its wake. An otherwise inexplicable kink in the chain marks a shift in the movement of the Pacific plate some 47 million years ago, from a northward to a more northwesterly direction, and the kink has been presented in geology texts as an example of how a tectonic plate can shift direction comparatively suddenly. A look at the USGS map on the origin of the Hawaiian Islands[1] clearly shows this "spearpoint".
In a more recent study, Sharp and Clague (2006) interpret the bend as starting at about 50 million years ago. They also conclude that the bend formed from a "traditional" cause—a change in the direction of motion of the Pacific plate.
However, recent research shows that the hotspot itself may have moved with time. Some evidence comes from analysis of the orientation of the ancient magnetic field preserved by magnetite in ancient lava flows sampled at four seamounts (Tarduno et al., 2003): this evidence from paleomagnetism shows a more complex relationship than the commonly accepted view of a stationary hotspot. If the hotspot had remained above a fixed mantle plume during the past 80 million years, the latitude as recorded by the orientation of the ancient magnetic field preserved by magnetite (paleolatitude) should be constant for each sample; this should also signify original cooling at the same latitude as the current location of the Hawaiian hotspot. Instead of remaining constant, the paleolatitudes of the Emperor Seamounts show a change from north to south, with decreasing age. The paleomagnetic data from the seamounts of the Emperor chain suggest motion of the Hawaiian hotspot in Earth's mantle. Tarduno et al. (2009) have summarized evidence that the bend in the seamount chain may be caused by circulation patterns in the flowing solid mantle (mantle "wind") rather than a change in plate motion.
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