Volcanology Commons^™

Origin Of Intraplate Volcanoes From Guyot Heights And Oceanic Paleodepth, Jacqueline Caplan-Auerbach, Fred Duennebier, Garrett Ito

Geology Faculty Publications

The height of a guyot as measured from the surrounding regional sea floor to the volcano's slope break records the water depth at the time the guyot submerged. Thus guyot heights may be used as indicators of the paleodepth of the surrounding ocean floor. We compile data on the heights of 68 intraplate guyots and atolls in the Pacific Ocean as well as 46 volcanic islands in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. We find that guyot heights generally increase with the age of the lithosphere upon which they were emplaced, although there is a large amount of scatter. In …