Tropic Seamount

Coordinates: 23°53′N 20°43′W / 23.89°N 20.72°W / 23.89; -20.72[1]
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Tropic Seamount
North Atlantic
GroupCanary Islands Seamount Province
Coordinates23°53′N 20°43′W / 23.89°N 20.72°W / 23.89; -20.72[1]

Tropic Seamount is a Cretaceous[a] seamount, part of the Canary Islands Seamount Province. It is located west of the Western Sahara's coastline and southwest of the Canary Islands, north of Cape Verde. It is one of a number of seamounts (a type of underwater volcanic mountain) in this part of the Atlantic Ocean, probably formed by volcanic processes triggered by the proximity to the African continent. Tropic Seamount is located at a depth of 970 metres (3,180 ft) and has a summit platform with an area of 120 square kilometres (46 sq mi).

Tropic Seamount is formed by

pelagic sediments; iron and manganese
accumulated in crusts over time beginning a few tens of millions of years ago.

Name

Tropic Seamount lies close to the Tropic of Cancer, thus the name.[3] It is also known as "Tropical Bank" or "Carmenchu Peak",[4][5] the latter named after Me. del Carmen Piernavieja y Oramas of Las Palmas, Spain; this nomenclature reflected the idea that Carmenchu Peak was a separate summit.[6] The seamount is recognized by the International Hydrographic Organization.[1] An alternative name "Tropic Guyot" has been proposed[7] and the diminutive "Tropiquito" was applied to another smaller seamount in the region.[8]

Geography and geomorphology

Tropic Seamount lies in the northeast Atlantic Ocean[9] 470 kilometres (290 mi) west of Cape Blanc[10] and 400 kilometres (250 mi) south of the Canary Islands[11] off the coast of Northwestern Africa.[12] The area around Tropic Seamount is subject to competing territorial claims by Morocco and Spain.[13] The seamount has been prospected for mining of its mineral resources.[14]

Regional

Tropic 119 is the southwesternmost element of the CISP

Tropic Seamount is the southernmost member

The Paps Seamount, Ico Seamount, Echo Bank and Drago Seamount but also Essaouira Seamount north of Lanzarote. Especially the southern among these underwater mountains are poorly studied.[16] Tropic Seamount has also been counted among the Saharan Seamounts.[19] Aside from the seamounts, submarine canyons and large debris flows occur in the region[20] such as the Sahara Slide which has run around Echo Bank.[21]

Local

The isolated

aeolian sediments;[4] there is no indication of other volcanic edifices in the neighbourhood or of a swell[24] although the so-called San Borondón crest connects it to Echo Bank.[25]

The seamount rises 3.2 kilometres (2.0 mi) from a depth of 4,200 metres (13,800 ft) to a depth of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft)[1] and a diamond-shaped flat summit[9] that has a surface area of about 120 square kilometres (46 sq mi)[4] and is covered with pelagic ooze[5] and sediments;[22] the shallowest sector of the seamount lies at 970 metres (3,180 ft) depth.[17] This flat summit is covered by 10–20 metres (33–66 ft) high volcanic cones and features terraces at the margin of the summit[1] as well as ridges that point due north, east, south and west. Volcanic cones are concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of the summit platform.[23] The seamount has a volume of about 300 cubic kilometres (72 cu mi), similar to other Atlantic Ocean volcanoes.[24] Raised beaches have been reported from Tropic Seamount.[26]

The outer slopes of the seamount become steeper to the summit

parasitic vents and volcanic ridges.[24]

Geology

The geological origin of the Canary Islands Seamounts are unclear, with various hotspot processes as well as crustal and mantle phenomena proposed.[20] The age progression from either Essaouira Seamount or Lanzarote-Fuerteventura to El Hierro-La Palma has been interpreted as indicating a hotspot process[31] but the considerably higher ages of the submarine volcanism both in the Canaries and at the Canary Islands Seamounts are not compatible with a hotspot origin. An alternative theory posits that mantle convection is driven by the close distance between the seamounts and the African continent[32] and generated these volcanoes beginning in the Cretaceous.[17] There is no indication of a mantle plume track at Tropic Seamount.[5] Volcanic activity at Echo and Tropic seamounts was probably focused and generated a circular volcanic structure, while at Drago and The Paps it was controlled by lineaments and thus formed elongated edifices.[28]

Composition

Dredging has produced

pelagic ooze,[26] reefal limestones and sediments have been recovered.[36]

The volcanic rocks include

hydrothermal chemical alteration has taken place and has formed carbonate, celadonite, chlorite, hematite, prehnite, quartz, smectite and rare zeolites.[44]

Thick ferromanganese deposits were recovered from the seamount in 1992 by the RV Sonne[10] and are found especially on the western flank[22] but also in the summit region, often over partly consolidated sediments.[45] They have the appearance of a black crust.[46] Components include asbolane, carbonate fluorapatite, goethite, palygorskite, todorokite and vernadite[47] as well as minor calcite and quartz;[48] the crusts which occur on the Canary Islands Seamounts including at Tropic Seamount reach thicknesses of 20 centimetres (7.9 in) and are rich in cobalt,[49] tellurium[50] and other elements of industrial importance.[51] At Tropic Seamount they formed from water but were also influenced by material coming from Africa[52] and by global and northern hemisphere climate conditions.[53]

Environment

Water temperatures and salinity of the water masses around Tropic Seamount decrease with increasing depth

South Atlantic and Antarctica and are stacked over each other.[20] Upwelling delivers highly nutrient-rich waters to the seamount.[54]

Corals and

glass sponges.[56] Other species drill tunnels into rocks.[57] Ages of corals range from 100 years to 148,000 years, but live specimens have also been recovered.[58] Coral growth appears to increase during glacial times and in the recent 1,000 years,[59] while decreasing during periods with low supply of Sahara dust.[60]

Common coral species encountered at Tropic Seamount are

echinoids Echinocyamus scaber,[62] Palaeotropus josephinae,[63] Peripatagus cinctus[64] and Selenocidaris varispina have been found on this seamount,[65] as are xenophyophorea.[56]

Geologic history

Tropic Seamount appears to be the oldest among the Canary Islands Seamounts.[28] Ages of samples from its southwestern slopes range from 119.3 ± 0.3 to 113.9 ± 0.2 million years ago[66] while the northern slopes have produced ages of 84 to 59 million years ago; this has been interpreted as meaning that Tropic Seamount was active mainly between 119 and 114 million years ago [9] in the late Aptian[9] but later volcanic activity continued until about 60 million years ago[67] in the middle Paleocene.[9] Later volcanic activity may have formed the mounds on the summit plateau.[68] When Tropic Seamount was active the Atlantic Ocean was much narrower than today and dinosaurs still roamed the Earth.[8]

Tropic Seamount once formed an island before it was eroded down to its current depth.[17] [69] Flat topped summits can form through diverse mechanisms;[28] waves eroding[26] an island is the preferred theory in the case of Tropic Seamount[5][69] as there is little evidence of caldera-forming volcanic activity.[4] How this former island subsided to a depth of 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) however is unclear.[70]

The growth of ferromanganese crusts began probably no earlier than 76 million years ago[71] in the late Cretaceous[72] and would be one among the oldest such crusts recovered if it is that old.[73] Other crusts began developing about 30 million years ago, with a younger generation of crusts developing starting from 12 ± 2 million years ago.[74] Phosphate-mediated alteration has been dated to 46 ± 10 or 38 ± 1.2 million years ago; this corresponds to an episode of similar alteration in Pacific seamounts and appears to have been caused by colder, faster ocean currents at that time.[75] The alteration of carbonates by phosphates and the presence of phosphorite crusts indicate that the seamount has been inactive for a long time.[39] On the other hand, it and other seamounts in the region may have been affected by geological processes between the Miocene and Pleistocene,[76] and Tropic could have been a source[77][78] of Pleistocene[25] debris that covers the seafloor to its east.[78]

Notes

  1. ^ Between ca. 145 and 66 million years ago.[2]
  2. ^ A ferromanganese crust is a deposit of minerals underwater, that forms through the precipitation of metals dissolved in the water column.[33]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Palomino et al. 2016, p. 128.
  2. ^ "International Chronostratigraphic Chart" (PDF). International Commission on Stratigraphy. August 2018. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 July 2018. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  3. ^ "Thirteenth Meeting of the GEBCO Sub-Committeeon Undersea Feature Names" (PDF). International Hydrographic Organization. 1999. p. 44. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Blum, Halbach & Münch 1996, p. 3.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Blum et al. 1996, p. 194.
  6. US Department of Commerce. p. 324
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  7. ^ SCUFN (2003). Summary Report (PDF). Sixteenth meeting of the GEBCO Subcommittee on Undersea Feature Names. International Hydrographic Organization. p. 4.
  8. ^ a b "Logbuch METEOR M146". Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (in German). Bremen University. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d e f Josso et al. 2019, p. 109.
  10. ^ a b Koschinsky et al. 1996, p. 567.
  11. Bibcode:2017AGUFMOS21C..02Y
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  12. ^ Blum, Halbach & Münch 1996, p. 2.
  13. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 14 August 2022 – via ProQuest
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  15. ^ a b Schmincke & Graf 2000, p. 34.
  16. ^ a b Palomino et al. 2016, p. 125.
  17. ^ a b c d e Marino et al. 2017, p. 42.
  18. ^ Ortiz Kfouri et al. 2021, p. 2.
  19. ^ Josso et al. 2021, p. 61.
  20. ^ a b c Palomino et al. 2016, p. 126.
  21. ^ a b Palomino et al. 2016, p. 135.
  22. ^ a b c d Koschinsky et al. 1996, p. 569.
  23. ^ a b Palomino et al. 2016, p. 130.
  24. ^ a b c Blum et al. 1996, p. 195.
  25. ^ a b León et al. 2019, p. 33.
  26. ^ a b c Josso et al. 2019, p. 110.
  27. ^ Blum, Halbach & Münch 1996, p. 17.
  28. ^ a b c d Palomino et al. 2016, p. 133.
  29. ^ Palomino et al. 2016, p. 137.
  30. ^ León et al. 2022, p. 11.
  31. ^ van den Bogaard 2013, p. 1.
  32. ^ van den Bogaard 2013, p. 6.
  33. ^ Ortiz Kfouri et al. 2021, p. 1.
  34. ^ Schmincke & Graf 2000, p. 73.
  35. ^ Schmincke & Graf 2000, pp. 20–21.
  36. ^
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  37. ^ Schmincke & Graf 2000, p. 88.
  38. ^ a b Schmincke & Graf 2000, pp. 25–26.
  39. ^ a b Blum et al. 1996, p. 196.
  40. ^ Blum, Halbach & Münch 1996, p. 3,5.
  41. ^ Blum, Halbach & Münch 1996, pp. 8–9.
  42. ^ Schmincke & Graf 2000, p. 46.
  43. ^ Schmincke & Graf 2000, p. 24.
  44. ^ Blum, Halbach & Münch 1996, p. 5.
  45. ^
    Bibcode:2017AGUFMOS34A..05M
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  46. ^ a b Cornwall 2019, p. 1104.
  47. ^ Ortiz Kfouri et al. 2021, p. 10.
  48. ^ Marino et al. 2017, p. 47.
  49. ^ Torres Pérez-Hidalgo, Trinidad José; Ortiz Menéndez, José Eugenio; González, F.J.; Somoza, L.; Lunar, R.; Martínez-Frías, J.; Medialdea, T.; León, R.; Martín-Rubí, J.A.; Marino, E. (2014). Polymetallic ferromanganese deposits research on the Atlantic Spanish continental margin. Harvesting Seabed Minerals Resources in Harmony with Nature UMI 2014. Lisboa. p. 7 – via Academia.edu.
  50. ^ Josso et al. 2021, p. 63.
  51. ^ Marino et al. 2017, pp. 57–58.
  52. ^ a b Koschinsky et al. 1996, p. 571.
  53. ^ Josso et al. 2021, p. 71.
  54. ^ a b de Carvalho Ferreira et al. 2022, p. 4.
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  56. ^ a b Cornwall 2019, p. 1106.
  57. ^ Ortiz Kfouri et al. 2021, p. 3.
  58. ^ de Carvalho Ferreira et al. 2022, p. 5.
  59. ^ de Carvalho Ferreira et al. 2022, p. 7.
  60. ^ de Carvalho Ferreira et al. 2022, p. 9.
  61. ^ Krylova, Elena M. (2006). "Bivalves of seamounts of the north-eastern Atlantic" (PDF). In Mironov, A.N.; Gebruk, A.V.; Southward, A.J. (eds.). Biogeography of the North Atlantic seamounts. p. 92.
  62. ^ Mironov 2006, p. 114.
  63. ^ Mironov 2006, p. 117.
  64. ^ Mironov 2006, p. 119.
  65. ^ Mironov 2006, p. 106.
  66. ^ van den Bogaard 2013, p. 2.
  67. ^ van den Bogaard 2013, p. 3.
  68. ^ León et al. 2022, p. 19.
  69. ^ a b Palomino et al. 2016, p. 134.
  70. ^ Schmincke & Graf 2000, p. 26.
  71. ^ Marino et al. 2017, p. 49.
  72. ^ Josso et al. 2019, p. 118.
  73. ^ Marino et al. 2017, p. 53.
  74. ^ Koschinsky et al. 1996, p. 575.
  75. ^ Josso et al. 2019, p. 117.
  76. ^ León et al. 2022, pp. 19–20.
  77. ^ León et al. 2022, p. 8.
  78. ^ a b León et al. 2019, p. 34.

Sources

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