Vesteris Seamount: An enigma in the Greenland Basin

• Published in: Marine Geophysical Researches
• Main Authors: Cherkis, Norman Z., Steinmetz, Stefan, Schreiber, Reinhold, Thiede, Jörn, Theiner, Jürgen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 1994
• Subjects: Greenland; Greenland Basin; Vesteris Seamount; Arktis; Arktis*; East Greenland
• Online Access: https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/47044/; https://oceanrep.geomar.de/id/eprint/47044/1/Cherkis1994_Article_VesterisSeamountAnEnigmaInTheG.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01224746

Vesteris Seamount is a solitary submarine volcano located at 73-degrees-30' N, 9-degrees-10' W in the Greenland Basin. Steeply rising from a base depth of 3100 m to a minimum depth of approximately 130 m and striking 030-degrees/210-degrees, the feature lies approximately 300 km east of the east Greenland margin on an otherwise nearly flat and featureless seafloor. The main body of the seamount appears to have been formed episodically, the last of which culminated about 110 000 years ago. Subsequent, lower intensity volcanic activity continued sporadically until about 25 000 years ago, as evidenced by ash layers found in cores near the base of the feature. The smoothed surfaces at the summit make it likely that the seamount actually broached the surface during the Weichselian glacial period, between 8000 and 13 000 years ago. Two multibeam bathymetric investigations aboard PFS Polarstern during ARKTIS II/4 (1984) and ARKTIS VII/1 (1990), combined with geologic sampling. single-channel seismic profiling and underwater television coverage, have resulted in a new interpretation of both the morphology and origins of the seamount. Data collected aboard Polarstern from ARKTIS II/4 (1984) have been previously reported by Hempel et al. (1991), however, when combined with the ARKTIS VII/1 (1990) data set, a more detailed interpretation of the morphology and structure was feasible. This included the elongated shape of the feature and showed the existence of several small volcanic cones on the seamount flanks.