EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) -- Seamounts as a Link Between Geochemistry-Geophysics-Tectonics-Geohazards

Description
Seamounts are prominent geological features found throughout the major ocean basins. There are probably close to 200,000 seamounts of considerable height above the seafloor. Even though only a very small fraction of all these seamounts have been surveyed and studied, seamounts offer a much-used window that has played a major role in defining our views concerning solid Earth geophysics, geochemistry, geodynamics and plate tectonics. However, seamounts remain largely unstudied for their profound interactions on ocean currents, their role in generating geohazards and influencing tsunami wave propagations, the potential substantial geochemical fluxes between seawater and basalt, and the reasons why seamounts attract such a wide range of marine life from microbes to metazoans. In this SEAMOUNTS'09 keynote Anthony Koppers is providing an overview of recent seamount research that has led to key advances in our understanding of (i) how seamounts are formed volcanically, structurally and chemically, (ii) changes in the thermal and mechanical properties of oceanic lithosphere on which seamounts are formed, (iii) absolute plate tectonic motions and relationships between plate motion, plume motion, whole-Earth motion and mantle convection, (iv) partial mantle melting in mid-plate tectonic settings, and (v) the chemical development and heterogeneity of the Earth¿s mantle. He finally shows the pivotal role of seamounts in increasing our overall understanding of the geodynamical and biological Earth.