Geology of a newly discovered seamount in the New England seamount chain

<p>The AGOSTA project initially proposed by our team and lately funded by CNES TOSCA consists of developing efficient approaches to restore seafloor shape (or bathymetry), as well as lithospheric parameters such as the crust and elastic thicknesses, by combining different types of observations including gravity gradient data. As it is based on the second derivatives of the potential versus the space coordinates, gravity gradiometry provides more information inside the Earth system at short wavelengths. The GOCE mission has measured the gravity gradient components of the static field globally and give the possibility to detect more details on the structure of the lithosphere at spatial resolutions less than 200 km. We propose to analyze these satellite-measured gravity tensor components to map the undersea relief more precisely than using geoid or vertical gravity previously considered for this purpose. Inversion of vertical gravity gradient data derived from the radar altimetry technique also offers the possibility to reach greater resolutions (at least 50 km) than the GOCE mission one. The seafloor topography estimates are tested in areas well-covered by independent data for validation, such as around the Great Meteor guyot [29&#176;57&#8242;10.6&#8243;N, 28&#176;35&#8242;31.3&#8243;W] and New England seamount chain [37&#176;24&#8242;N 60&#176;00&#8242;W, 120&#176; 10' 30.4" W] in the Atlantic Ocean as well as the Acapulco seamount [13&#176; 36' 15.4" N, 120&#176; 10' 30.4" W] in the Central Pacific.</p>

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Site 382: Nashville SeamountVolcanism along the Eastern New England Seamount Chain

10.2973/dsdp.proc.43.102.1979 ◽

1979 ◽

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Seamount Chain

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Ring-shaped morphological features and interpreted small seamounts between southern Quebec (Canada) and the New England seamounts (USA) and their possible association with the New England hotspot track

Atlantic Geology ◽

10.4138/atlgeol.2018.008 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 223-265

Author(s):

Ronald T. Marple ◽

James D. Hurd, Jr. ◽

Robert J. Altamura

Keyword(s):

New England ◽

Continental Slope ◽

Gulf Of Maine ◽

Morphological Features ◽

Cape Cod ◽

Digital Elevation ◽

Igneous Province ◽

Seamount Chain ◽

Elevation Model ◽

Digital Elevation Model Data

Enhancements of recently available high-resolution multibeam echosounder data from the western Gulf of Maine and Atlantic continental margin and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and digital elevation model data from southeastern Quebec (Canada) and the northeastern United States have revealed numerous ring-shaped morphological features and interpreted small seamounts between the Monteregian Hills igneous province and the New England seamounts. The morphological features onshore are mainly ring-shaped depressions, several of which surround mapped igneous intrusions in the Monteregian Hills igneous province and White Mountain magma series. Most of the rings offshore are also depressions, although a few rings are curved ridges above the seafloor. The largest ring in the western Gulf of Maine is the 30-km-diameter Tillies ring that lies 20 km east of Cape Ann, MA. Several small (<3 km in diameter) round, flat-topped submerged hills that we interpret to be volcanic necks are also present beneath the western Gulf of Maine. The rings between Cape Cod and the continental slope are more subtle because of thicker sediments and poorer spatial resolution of the sonar data in this area. The southernmost ring-shaped features are located on the continental slope and upper continental rise and coincide with the northwestern end of the New England seamount chain. The concentration of these features between the Monteregian Hills igneous province and the New England seamounts suggests that they are igneous features that may be associated with the New England hotspot track.

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