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A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock.Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from the seafloor to 1,000–4,000 m (3,300–13,100 ft) in height.
Axial Seamount's growth has intersected the growth of many of the smaller seamounts around it. The largest of these is Brown Bear Seamount, to which it is connected [9] by a narrow ridge running roughly perpendicular to its western caldera wall. However, little evidence of interactions between the two seamounts has been found. [7]
The Bear Seamount (left), a guyot in the northern Atlantic Ocean. In marine geology, a guyot (/ ˈ ɡ iː. oʊ, ɡ iː ˈ oʊ /), [1] [2] also called a tablemount, is an isolated underwater volcanic mountain with a flat top more than 200 m (660 ft) below the surface of the sea. [3]
The Hawaiian–Emperor seamount chain is a mostly undersea mountain range in the Pacific Ocean that reaches above sea level in Hawaii.It 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 ...
In the ocean basins, ocean island basalts form seamounts, [3] and in some cases, enough material is erupted that the rock protrudes from the ocean and forms an island, like at Hawaii, Samoa, and Iceland. Over time, however, thermal subsidence and mass loss via subaerial erosion causes islands to become completely submarine seamounts or guyots.
Seamounts are volcanic mountains which rise from the seafloor. The unlimited supply of water surrounding these volcanoes can cause them to behave differently from volcanoes on land. The lava emitted in eruptions at Bowie Seamount is made of basalt, a common gray to black or dark brown volcanic rock low in silica content (the lava is mafic).
Any rounded underwater features exceeding that height are referred to as seamounts. [2] They are believed to cover around 16.3% of the world's seafloor. [3] Examples
Studies have indicated that a seamount functions as an "oasis of life," with a higher species count and more biodiversity than the surrounding seafloor. [4] Although previous analysis has stressed the exceptionalism of the seamount habitat, recent biological analysis, much of it centered on Davidson Seamount, has indicated that this does not necessarily translate into a higher endemic percentage.