Sea mountains formed by submarine volcanism, landsliding and fault movements

What is it about?

This chapter reviews the science of seamounts or "sea mountains", arguably the most common landform on Earth. Seamounts are mainly formed by submarine volcanic activity, though can also be created by movements of faults and land-sliding. The review covers how volcanic activity creates the shapes of small and large seamounts, work at their surfaces, geophysical measurements and, more recently, studies of them actively forming using remote-sensing methods (acoustics) and dives of robotic vehicles. They have also been imaged with geophysical data as part of efforts in petroleum exploration, an indirect benefit of such activity. Landslide seamounts can be found around the Hawaiian Islands, where large blocks of the islands have slid into the deeper Pacific Ocean around them. Tectonic seamounts tend to form at plate boundaries, such as along the mid-ocean ridges.

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Photo by David Billings on Unsplash

Photo by David Billings on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Since 2010, this is possibly the first broad review bringing together the new work on in situ observations with the earlier geomorphological observations.

Perspectives