Louisville seamount chain

Louisville seamount chain

The Louisville seamount chain stretches diagonally across this bathymetric map of the southwest Pacific Ocean.
Summit area length:4,300 km (2,700 mi)
Location
Location Southwest Pacific Ocean
Geology
Type Seamount chain
Volcanic arc/chain Hotspot volcanoes
History
Discovery date 1972

The Louisville seamount chain is an underwater chain of over 70 seamounts in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. One of the longest seamount chains on Earth, it stretches some 4,300 kilometres[1] from the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge ENE to the Tonga-Kermadec Trench, where it subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate as part of the Pacific Plate. The movement of the Pacific Plate over the Louisville hotspot formed the chain.

Depth-sounding data first revealed the existence of the seamount chain in 1972.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Vanderkluysen, L.; Mahoney, J. J.; Koppers, A. A.; and Lonsdale, P. F. (2007). Geochemical Evolution of the Louisville Seamount Chain, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #V42B-06.
  2. ^ Sandwell, David T.; Walter H.F. Smith (1997). "Exploring the ocean basins with satellite altimeter data". Satellite Geodesy. La Jolla: Scripps Institution of Oceanography. http://www.luau.ucsd.edu/marine_grav/explore_grav.html. Retrieved 2010-01-19. "The Louisville seamount chain was first detected in 1972 using depth soundings collected along random ship crossings of the South Pacific. Six years later the full extent of this chain was revealed by a radar altimeter aboard the Seasat (NASA) spacecraft."