Bounty Seamount Explained
Bounty Seamount is a seamount in the Pacific Ocean, which reaches a depth of or . It is about high.
Geology and geomorphology
The seamount is part of a group of seamounts about away from Pitcairn Island, which includes several small seamounts and the large Adams Seamount. These seamounts were discovered in 1989.
Bounty has a conical shape, with three summit cones and several rift zones. Pillow lavas and hyaloclastite cover its slopes, and parasitic vents can be observed as well. The volcano has a volume of about and has a width of at its foot. Bounty has erupted rocks with compositions of alkali basalt, trachyandesite and trachyte.
Eruption history
Bounty Seamount was formed in several stages, and it could have developed over a time of 58,000 years. Alkali basalts from Bounty have been dated by potassium-argon dating to be 344,000 ± 32,000 years before present. Nevertheless, traces of recent volcanic activity and of hydrothermal venting have been found.
This hydrothermal venting manifests itself by the release of low-temperature fluids and the formation of iron-rich crusts. Temperatures of vented fluids amount to 14-.
References
Sources
- Binard. Nicolas. Hékinian. Roger. Stoffers. Peter. Morphostructural study and type of volcanism of submarine volcanoes over the Pitcairn hot spot in the South Pacific. Tectonophysics. June 1992. 206. 3–4. 245–264. 10.1016/0040-1951(92)90379-K. 1992Tectp.206..245B . en. 0040-1951.
- Guillou. Hervé. Garcia. Michael O.. Turpin. Laurent. Unspiked K-Ar dating of young volcanic rocks from Loihi and Pitcairn hot spot seamounts. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. September 1997. 78. 3–4. 239–249. 10.1016/S0377-0273(97)00012-7. 1997JVGR...78..239G . en. 0377-0273.
- Hekinian. R. Cheminée. J.L. Dubois. J. Stoffers. P. Scott. S. Guivel. C. Garbe-Schönberg. D. Devey. C. Bourdon. B. Lackschewitz. K. McMurtry. G. Le Drezen. E. The Pitcairn hotspot in the South Pacific: distribution and composition of submarine volcanic sequences. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. March 2003. 121. 3–4. 219–245. 10.1016/S0377-0273(02)00427-4. 2003JVGR..121..219H. en. 0377-0273.
- Book: Scholten. J. C.. Scott. S. D.. Garbe-Schönberg. D.. Fietzke. J.. Blanz. T.. Kennedy. C. B.. Oceanic Hotspots . Hydrothermal Iron and Manganese Crusts from the Pitcairn Hotspot Region . 2004. 375–405. 10.1007/978-3-642-18782-7_13. en. 978-3-642-62290-8.
