The Magellan Seamounts (also known as Magellan Seamount Group and previously called Magellan RiseMarine Gazetter:deleted entry record Magellan Rise
/ref> ) stretch from the

Mariana Trench The Mariana Trench is an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean, about east of the Mariana Islands; it is the deep sea, deepest oceanic trench on Earth. It is crescent-shaped and measures about in length and in width. The maxi ...

to Ita Mai Tai Guyot. Geological studies have demonstrated unique features with implications on understanding of

ocean island basalt Ocean island basalt (OIB) is a volcanic rock, usually basaltic in composition, erupted in oceans away from tectonic plate boundaries. Although ocean island basaltic magma is mainly erupted as basalt lava, the basaltic magma is sometimes modified ...

volcanism. Contracts exist with the

International Seabed Authority The International Seabed Authority (ISA; ) is a Kingston, Jamaica-based intergovernmental body of 167 member states and the European Union. It was established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its 1994 Agreement o ...

to exploit the areas potential

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

wealth.

Geography

The Magellan Seamounts extend from to Marine Gazetteer:Magellan Seamounts
/ref> They include: # Govorov Guyot #* #*121 ± 2.8 to 98.5 ± 1.4 Ma # Ioah Seamount (also known as Ioah Guyot, Ioan Seamount or Fedorov Seamount) #* #* 87 million years old # Pako Guyot #* #* 92 million years old but volcanics have been now dated in range 112 to 86 Ma and < 20 Ma in smaller volcanoes on the guyot. # Vlinder Guyot (also known as Alba Guyot) #* #* 95 million years old # Ita Mai Tai Guyot #* #* 118 million years old

Geology

The volcanoes are part of a

hotspot Hotspot, Hot Spot or Hot spot may refer to: Places * Hot Spot, Kentucky, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Hot Spot (comics), a name for the DC Comics character Isaiah Crockett * Hot Spot (Tr ...

chain whose formation ages are in the range 121 to 86 million years ago. However recently sampling has shown secondary volcanic activity at about 20 million years ago. Pako Guyot, which is quite large, is to date the only

seamount where two quite distinct mantle plume components have been discovered in one seamount, being an extreme high μ = ²³⁸U/²⁰⁴Pb mantle (HIMU) and enriched mantle 1 (EM1) component. These are respectively suggestive of associations with the

Arago hotspot Arago hotspot (also known as the Rurutu hotspot, Young Rurutu hotspot or Atiu hotspot) is a hotspot in the Pacific Ocean, presently located below the Arago seamount close to the island of Rurutu, French Polynesia. Arago is part of a family of ...

and/or the

Rarotonga hotspot The Rarotonga hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the southern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot is claimed to be responsible for the formation of Rarotonga and some volcanics of Aitutaki but an alternative explanation for these islands most recent volca ...

and make a previously suggested association with the

Samoa hotspot The Samoa hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the south Pacific Ocean. The hotspot model describes a hot upwelling plume of magma through the Earth's crust as an explanation of how volcanic islands are formed. The hotspot idea came from ...

less likely. Given their age the

guyot In marine geology, a guyot (), also called a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain (seamount) with a flat top more than below the surface of the sea. The diameters of these flat summits can exceed . Guyots are most commonly fo ...

s have also had sedimentary deposits which have been characterised as reef and planktonic limestones. They are of interest for their mineral potential, for example with

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. ...

containing ferromanganese nodule deposits.

References

{{reflist Seamount chains Guyots Hotspot tracks Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean Cretaceous volcanoes

Geography

Geology

See also

References