| Nintoku Seamount | |
|---|---|
 Elevation of the Pacific seafloor, showing the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, including Nintoku Seamount near the center of the "V". The sharp "V" separates the Hawaiian Ridge from the older Emperor Seamount portion of the chain. | |
Bathymetric mapping of Nintoku | |
| Height | over 1,600 m (5,249 ft)[2] |
| Summit area | 3400 square kilometers[2] |
| Location | |
| Location | Middle of the chain[2] |
| Group | Emperor seamounts |
| Coordinates | 41°4.80′N 170°34.20′E / 41.08000°N 170.57000°E[1] |
| Geology | |
| Type | Guyot, Hotspot volcano |
| Volcanic arc/chain | Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain |
| Age of rock | 56.2 million years old.[3] |
Nintoku Seamount or Nintoku Guyot is a seamount (underwater volcano) and guyot (flat top) in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain. It is a large, irregularly shaped volcano that last erupted 66 million years ago. Three lava flows have been sampled at Nintoku Seamount; the flows are almost all alkalic (subaerial) lava.[4] It is 56.2 million years old.[3]
Nintoku is positioned a roughly 41 degrees north latitude, approximately two-thirds the way southward along the north-northeast-south-southeast Emperor seamounts extending from Meiji Seamount (about 53°N) in the north to Kammu Seamount (about 32°N) at the chain's southern terminus. Nintoku Seamount was named after the 16th emperor of Japan, Emperor Nintoku, by geologist Robert Dietz in 1954.[4]
The seamount occupies a central position in the Emperor Seamount chain and is thus an important point in the paleolatitude history of the Hawaiian hotspot, instrumental to proving the scientific hunch that the Hawaii hotspot was a mobile entity.[2] The structure of the seamount is elongate, aligned north-northwest along the Emperor trend, with two prominent ridges trending southwest and south-southwest as far as 100 km (62 mi) from the main crater. Nintoku Seamount is a plexus of coalesced volcanoes, much like many of the larger seamounts in this chain. The Nintoku system is, however, clearly isolated from Yomei Seamount, about 100 km (62 mi) to the north, and Jingu Seamount, about 200 km (124 mi) to south, by abyssal depths.[2]
- ^ "Seamount Catalog". Seamounts database. EarthRef, a National Science Foundation project. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ a b c d e "Site 1205 Background and Scientific Objectives". Ocean Drilling Program database entry. Ocean Drilling Program. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ a b "Age of Hawaiian-Emperor Volcanoes as a Function of Distance from Kilauea". Graphic Representation of Ages. Enduring Resources for Earth Science Education (ERESE). Retrieved 2009-04-04.
- ^ a b "SITE 1205 Principal Results". Ocean Drilling Program Entry. Ocean Drilling Program. Retrieved 2009-04-10.