THE FORMATION OF VOLCANOES AND SEAMOUNTS

VOLCANOES

The magma rises up under the middle of a lithosphere plate, though this is much less common than
magma production around plate boundaries. This interpolate volcanic activity is caused by unusually
hot mantle material forming in the lower mantle and pushing up into the upper mantle. The mantle
material, which forms a plume shape that is from 500 to 1000 km wide, wells up to create a hot
spot under a particular point on the earth. Because of the unusual heat of this mantle material, it
melts, forming magma just under the earth's crust. The hot spot itself is stationary; but as a
continental plate moves over the spot, the magma will create a string of volcanoes, which die out once
they move past the hot spot. Magma produced at ocean ridges just hardens to form new crust
material, and so doesn't produce spewing land volcanoes. There are a few continental ridge areas,
where the magma does spew out onto land; but most land volcanoes are produced by subduction
zone volcanism and hot spot volcanism. When the solid rock changes form to a more liquid rock
material, it becomes less dense than the surrounding solid rock. Because of this difference in density,
the magma pushes upward with great force as it pushes up, its intense heat melts some more rock,
adding to the magma mixture. The magma keeps moving through the crust unless its upward
pressure is exceeded by the downward pressure of the surrounding solid rock. At this point, the
magma collects in magma chambers below the surface of the earth. If the magma pressure rises to a
high enough level, or a crack opens up in the crust, the molten rock will spew out at the earth's
surface. If this happens, the flowing magma or also known as lava forms a volcano

SEAMOUNTS

Seamounts form by submarine volcanism. After repeated eruptions, the volcano builds upwards into
shallower water. If a seamount eventually breaches the water's surface, it becomes an island. Wave
action can then erode the exposed rock, and the peak may be flattened or levelled off. Flat-topped,
submerged seamounts, called guyots or tablemounts, are seamounts that once breached the ocean's
surface, but later subsided. Sometimes seamounts occur as matching pairs located on opposite sides
of an oceanic ridge. Speculation on the origins of these features led to the idea that such pairs were
once part of a single volcanic complex that had split and separated. This helped support the concept
that there are spreading centers along the ocean ridges where slabs or plates of the earth's
lithosphere are moving away from each other. Volcanic eruptions form new seafloor and seamounts in
the gap, or rift, that develops. This spreading, an integral part of the theory of plate tectonics (which
explains the motion of the earth's plates) has been measured to occur at a rate of between 0.8-4.0 in
(2-10 cm) per year. Seamounts are more numerous than terrestrial volcanoes and reach greater
heights. They may form in groups or clusters, or can be found aligned in submarine volcanic mountain
chains known as oceanic ridges. As seamounts slowly move away from the oceanic ridge due to
seafloor spreading, their tremendous mass causes them to subside. At the same time, sediment
"rains" down from above, slowly burying them over millions of years. As a result, especially tall
seamounts may occur as isolated features rising from the abyssal plain. This is the deep, flat section
of the ocean floor far removed from an oceanic ridge, where sediments are often thousands of feet
thick. Somewhat closer to an oceanic ridge, where sediments are not so thick, the tops of partially
buried seamounts form what are called abyssal hills. Some seamounts are very tall, broad volcanic
features with gentle slopes, known as shield volcanoes. Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii is a good
example. It rises over 32,810 ft (10,000 m) above the ocean floor, making Mauna Kea—not Mt.
Everest in the Himalayas—the world's highest mountain. These massive volcanic structures form
when isolated hot plumes of molten rock rise from the Earth's mantle, forming what is called a hot
spot. Iceland is another example of an island formed by hot spot activity.