Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data
The distribution of submarine volcanoes, or seamounts, reflects melting within the Earth and how the magma generated ascends through the overlying lithosphere. Globally (±60° latitude), we use bathymetry data acquired along 39.5 × 106 km of ship tracks to find 201,055 probable seamounts, an order of...
Published in: | Geophysical Research Letters |
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8b2663dc-9b13-46a0-9009-f1bdc717ee28 |
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ftuloxford:oai:ora.ox.ac.uk:uuid:8b2663dc-9b13-46a0-9009-f1bdc717ee28 2024-10-06T13:50:00+00:00 Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data Hillier, J Watts, A 2016-07-28 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8b2663dc-9b13-46a0-9009-f1bdc717ee28 eng eng doi:10.1029/2007GL029874 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8b2663dc-9b13-46a0-9009-f1bdc717ee28 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess Journal article 2016 ftuloxford https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 2024-09-06T07:47:38Z The distribution of submarine volcanoes, or seamounts, reflects melting within the Earth and how the magma generated ascends through the overlying lithosphere. Globally (±60° latitude), we use bathymetry data acquired along 39.5 × 106 km of ship tracks to find 201,055 probable seamounts, an order of magnitude more than previous counts across a wider height-range (0.1 < h < 6.7 km). In the North Pacific, seamounts' spatial distribution substantially reflects ridge-crest conditions, variable on timescales of 10 s of Ma and along-ridge distances of ∼1,000 km, rather than intraplate hot-spot related volcanic activity. In the Atlantic, volcano numbers decrease, somewhat counter-intuitively, towards Iceland suggesting that abundant under-ridge melt may deter the formation of isolated volcanoes. Neither previously used empirical curve (exponential or power-law) describes the true size-frequency distribution of seamounts. Nevertheless, we predict 39 ± 1 × 103 large seamounts (h > 1 km), implying that ∼24,000 (60%) remain to be discovered. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland ORA - Oxford University Research Archive Pacific Geophysical Research Letters 34 13 n/a n/a |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ORA - Oxford University Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftuloxford |
language |
English |
description |
The distribution of submarine volcanoes, or seamounts, reflects melting within the Earth and how the magma generated ascends through the overlying lithosphere. Globally (±60° latitude), we use bathymetry data acquired along 39.5 × 106 km of ship tracks to find 201,055 probable seamounts, an order of magnitude more than previous counts across a wider height-range (0.1 < h < 6.7 km). In the North Pacific, seamounts' spatial distribution substantially reflects ridge-crest conditions, variable on timescales of 10 s of Ma and along-ridge distances of ∼1,000 km, rather than intraplate hot-spot related volcanic activity. In the Atlantic, volcano numbers decrease, somewhat counter-intuitively, towards Iceland suggesting that abundant under-ridge melt may deter the formation of isolated volcanoes. Neither previously used empirical curve (exponential or power-law) describes the true size-frequency distribution of seamounts. Nevertheless, we predict 39 ± 1 × 103 large seamounts (h > 1 km), implying that ∼24,000 (60%) remain to be discovered. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hillier, J Watts, A |
spellingShingle |
Hillier, J Watts, A Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
author_facet |
Hillier, J Watts, A |
author_sort |
Hillier, J |
title |
Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
title_short |
Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
title_full |
Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
title_fullStr |
Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
title_sort |
global distribution of seamounts from ship-track bathymetry data |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8b2663dc-9b13-46a0-9009-f1bdc717ee28 |
geographic |
Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Pacific |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
doi:10.1029/2007GL029874 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8b2663dc-9b13-46a0-9009-f1bdc717ee28 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029874 |
container_title |
Geophysical Research Letters |
container_volume |
34 |
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13 |
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n/a |
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1812178086018416640 |