| Louisville Ridge | |
|---|---|
 The Louisville Ridge stretches diagonally across this bathymetric map of the southwest Pacific Ocean. | |
| Summit area | length:4,300 km (2,700 mi) |
| Location | |
| Location | Southwest Pacific Ocean |
| Coordinates | 38°16′S 167°55′W / 38.27°S 167.92°W |
| Geology | |
| Type | Seamount chain |
| Volcanic arc/chain | Louisville hotspot |
| History | |
| Discovery date | 1972[1] (1964)[2] |
The Louisville Ridge, often now referred to as the Louisville Seamount Chain,[3] is an underwater chain of over 70 seamounts located in the Southwest portion of the Pacific Ocean. As one of the longest seamount chains on Earth it stretches some 4,300 km (2,700 mi)[4] from the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge northwest to the Tonga-Kermadec Trench, where it subducts under the Indo-Australian Plate as part of the Pacific Plate. The chains formation is best explained by movement of the Pacific Plate over the Louisville hotspot[5] although others had suggested by leakage of magma from the shallow mantle up through the Eltanin fracture zone, which it follows closely for some of its course.[6]
Depth-sounding data first revealed existence consistent with a seamount chain in 1972[1] although some of the seamounts had been assigned as a ridge in 1964 linked to the Eltanin fracture zone system, hence the name.[2]
- ^ a b
Sandwell, David T.; Walter H.F. Smith (1997). "Exploring the ocean basins with satellite altimeter data". Satellite Geodesy. La Jolla: Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Retrieved 2010-01-19.
The Louisville Ridge was first detected in 1972 using depth soundings collected along random ship crossings of the South Pacific. Six years later the full extent of this chain was revealed by a radar altimeter aboard the Seasat (NASA) spacecraft.
- ^ a b Vanderkluysen, L; Mahoney, J J; Koppers, A A; Beier, C; Regelous, M; Gee, J S; Lonsdale, P F (2014). "Louisville Seamount Chain: Petrogenetic processes and geochemical evolution of the mantle source". Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. 15 (6): 2380–400. Bibcode:2014GGG....15.2380V. doi:10.1002/2014GC005288. S2CID 128524309.
- ^ "Marine Gazetteer Placedetails". Retrieved 2017-02-20.
- ^ Vanderkluysen, L.; Mahoney, J. J.; Koppers, A. A.; and Lonsdale, P. F. (2007). Geochemical Evolution of the Louisville Seamount Chain, American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #V42B-06.
- ^ Koppers, Anthony A. P.; Yamazaki, Toshitsugu; Geldmacher, Jörg; Gee, Jeffrey S.; Pressling, Nicola; Koppers, Anthony A. P.; Yamazaki, Toshitsugu; Geldmacher, Jörg; Gee, Jeffrey S.; Pressling, Nicola; Hoshi, Hiroyuki (December 2012). "Limited latitudinal mantle plume motion for the Louisville hotspot". Nature Geoscience. 5 (12): 911–917. Bibcode:2012NatGe...5..911K. doi:10.1038/ngeo1638. ISSN 1752-0908.
- ^ Smith, A. G. (2007). "A plate model for Jurassic to recent intraplate volcanism in the Pacific Ocean basin". In Plates, Plumes, and Planetary Processes, Edited by G.R. Foulger and D.M. Jurdy, Geological Society of America Special Paper 530, Boulder, CO. 430: 471–496.