The circulation and thermohaline structure around Fieberling, Fieberling II, and Hoke seamounts are examined on the basis of two high-resolution surveys in April and May 1991. The large-scale flow approached the seamounts from the southeast, impinging first on Hoke, then splitting, with one branch meandering westward in jetlike fashion over the Fieberling II and Fieberling seamounts and the other turning to the northeast. The jets were typically 10--20 km wide, with core speeds of 0.2--0.5 m/s and were accompanied by pairs of cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies, with diamters of 10--30 km, located near the seamounts. While the large-scale flow pattern persisted over a week, significant changes were observed in the shape of the meanders and the locations of the eddies over this period. Transient, bottom intensified upwelling cones, 20 km in diameter and 150--220 m high, were encountered on all three seamounts investigated, as were pronounced 60-m-deep mixed layers above the summits. Their persistence at a given location was less than a week. Geopotential height perturbations of the order of 0.8 J/kg (equivalent to 0.08 m in elevation) were observed in the vicinity of the seamounts. These perturbations are dominated by mesoscale ridges, troughs, peaks, and depressions, the positions of which vary with depth as well as time. In general, the surface geopotential topographies differ in shape from those observed at depths where the seamount peaks occur, which is attributed to the vanishing influence of the California current beneath 200 m. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1994