Sonar reflectance is used to quantify the relative ages of young volcanic terrains on a seamount chain and a nearby spreading center in the north equatorial Pacific. The reflectance is a measure both of the burial of lava by pelagic sedimentation and of the microrelief of the lava. The extent of sediment cover and the lava type distribution are calibrated with thousands of bottom photographs. The relative ages indicate that the locus of volcanic eruptions has migrated toward the East Pacific Rise axis. Zero-age activity lies just to the west of the East Pacific Rise south of the Clipperton Transform and is probably the cause of an anomalously shallow neovolcanic zone. The evidence fits a scenario in which eruptive centers appear, evolve, and become extinct in succession, with little or no overlap in time. The eruptive centers are fed in sequence through conduits from buoyant, tightly focused magma plumes. The near identical heights of many of the centers at the time of their latest eruptions suggest that the seamounts tap the same mantle depth range. Broad summit plateaus with calderas are formed if the plume volume is such that the hydraulic head is reached and magma is trapped within the volcano in ephemeral magma chambers or conduits. If the plume volume is small and the hydraulic head is not reached, the seamount remains small with only a small crater. The plumes ascend asynchronously from a common region of nucleation in the asthenosphere. Plumes that follow in close succession build a composite seamount with a string of summit calderas. Plumes that rise less often result in a line of discrete circular volcanoes. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1990