Louisville seamount chain

Louisville seamount chain
The Louisville seamount chain stretches diagonally across this bathymetric map of the southwest Pacific Ocean.
Summit area	length:4,300 km (2,700 mi)
Location
Location	Southwest Pacific Ocean
Geology
Type	Seamount chain
Volcanic arc/chain	Hotspot volcanoes
History
Discovery date	1972

The Louisville seamount chain is an underwater chain of over 70 seamounts in the Southwest Pacific Ocean. As one of the longest seamount chains on Earth it stretches some 4,300 kilometres^[1] from the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge north west to the Tonga-Kermadec Trench, where it subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate as part of the Pacific Plate. The movement of the Pacific Plate over the Louisville hotspot formed the chain.

Depth-sounding data first revealed the existence of the seamount chain in 1972.^[2]

See also

• Hotspot (geology)
• Osbourn Seamount the oldest seamount in the Louisville chain

References

1. Vanderkluysen, L.; Mahoney, J. J.; Koppers, A. A.; and Lonsdale, P. F. (2007). Geochemical Evolution of the Louisville Seamount Chain, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #V42B-06.
2. Sandwell, David T.; Walter H.F. Smith (1997). "Exploring the ocean basins with satellite altimeter data". Satellite Geodesy. La Jolla: Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Retrieved 2010-01-19. The Louisville seamount chain was first detected in 1972 using depth soundings collected along random ship crossings of the South Pacific. Six years later the full extent of this chain was revealed by a radar altimeter aboard the Seasat (NASA) spacecraft.

External links

• Expedition 330 - Louisville Seamount Trail, Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, 13 December 2010 to 11 February 2011
• The Louisville Ridge – Tonga Trench collision: Implications for subduction zone dynamics, RV Sonne Research Expedition SO215 Cruise Report, 25 April 2011 to 11 June 2011