The New England Seamounts is a chain of over twenty underwater
extinct volcanic mountains known as
seamount
A seamount is a large geologic landform that rises from the ocean floor that does not reach to the water's surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abru ...
s. This chain is located off the coast of
in the
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...
and extends over 1,000 km from the edge of
Georges Bank
Georges Bank (formerly known as St. Georges Bank) is a large elevated area of the sea floor between Cape Cod, Massachusetts (United States), and Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia (Canada). It separates the Gulf of Maine from the Atlantic Ocean.
Th ...
. Many of the peaks of these mountains rise over 4,000 m from the
seabed
The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as 'seabeds'.
The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...
.
The New England Seamounts chain is the longest such chain in the North Atlantic and is home to a diverse range of
deep sea
The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...
fauna.
Scientists have visited the chain on various occasions to survey the geologic makeup and
biota of the region. The chain is part of the
Great Meteor hotspot track
The New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot and sometimes the Monteregian hotspot, is a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic Ocean. It created the Monteregian Hills intrusions in Montreal and Montérégie, the White ...
and was formed by the movement of the
North American Plate
The North American Plate is a tectonic plate covering most of North America, Cuba, the Bahamas, extreme northeastern Asia, and parts of Iceland and the Azores. With an area of , it is the Earth's second largest tectonic plate, behind the Pacific ...
over the
New England hotspot
The New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot and sometimes the Monteregian hotspot, is a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic Ocean. It created the Monteregian Hills intrusions in Montreal and Montérégie, the White ...
. The oldest volcanoes that were formed by the same hotspot are northwest of
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
. Part of the seamount chain is protected by
Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument
The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument is a marine national monument of the United States off the coast of New England, on the seaward edge of Georges Bank. It was created by President Barack Obama on September 15, 2016, as ...
.
A variety of different names have been used to refer to this seamount range, including the Kelvin Seamounts, Kelvin Seamount Group, Kelvin Banks, New England Seamount Chain and the Bermuda-New England Seamount Arc (including the
Bermuda Pedestal
The Bermuda Pedestal is an oval geological feature in the northern Atlantic Ocean containing the topographic highs of the Bermuda Platform, the Plantagenet (Argus) Bank, and the Challenger Bank. The pedestal is long and wide at the 100 fathom li ...
, which contains the archipelago of
Bermuda
)
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, song = " Hail to Bermuda"
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and Argus and Challenger Banks, and
Bowditch Seamount Bowditch may refer to:
Books
*''Bowditch's American Practical Navigator'', an encyclopedia of navigation
People
*Ben Bowditch (born 1984), English footballer
*Brian Bowditch (born 1961), British mathematician
*Charles Pickering Bowditch (1842 – ...
, and other seamounts intervening roughly between Bermuda and
Nashville Seamount
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
).
Formation
The New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot, formed the
White Mountains 124 to 100 million years ago when the
North American continent
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
was directly over the zone. As the continent
drifted to the west, the hotspot gradually moved offshore. On a southeasterly course, the hotspot formed
Bear Seamount
The Bear Seamount is a guyot or flat-topped underwater volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the oldest of the New England Seamounts, which was active more than 100 million years ago. It was formed when the North American Plate moved over the New ...
, the oldest seamount in the chain, about 100 to 103 million years ago. Over the course of millions of years, the hotspot continued to create the other seamounts in the chain, culminating about 83 million years ago with the creation of the
Nashville Seamount
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
. As the Atlantic Ocean continued to
spread
Spread may refer to:
Places
* Spread, West Virginia
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Spread'' (film), a 2009 film.
* ''$pread'', a quarterly magazine by and for sex workers
* "Spread", a song by OutKast from their 2003 album ''Speakerboxxx/T ...
, the hotspot eventually "travelled" further east, forming the
Great Meteor Seamount
The Great Meteor Seamount, also called the Great Meteor Tablemount, is a guyot and the largest seamount in the North Atlantic with a volume of . It is one of the Seewarte Seamounts, rooted on a large terrace located south of the Azores Plateau. ...
south of the
Azores
)
, motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace")
, anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores")
, image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg
, map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union
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, where it is located today.
The New England Seamounts were once at or above
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...
. As time passed, however, and the chain moved farther away from the New England hotspot, the
crust cooled and contracted, and the chain sank into the ocean. All the peaks are now a kilometer or more below the surface.
Biota
![New England Seamount community](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/New_England_Seamount_community.jpg)
The seamount chain provides a unique habitat for
deep sea
The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...
marine creatures.
Coral
Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and sec ...
formations grow on the rocky outcrops, resembling underwater forests that provide shelter for
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s and fish.
Due to the expense and difficulties of studying the deep ocean, little was known of the creatures that inhabited the New England Seamounts. In fact, before recent expeditions, there was only one known coral species in the entire chain.
Since 2000, marine biologists, during various exploratory studies, have caught and classified over 203 species of fish and 214 species of invertebrates on the
Bear Seamount
The Bear Seamount is a guyot or flat-topped underwater volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the oldest of the New England Seamounts, which was active more than 100 million years ago. It was formed when the North American Plate moved over the New ...
.
This range of diversity suggests that other seamounts may harbour more unknown macro-organisms. During one survey, a species of
cutthroat eel
Cutthroat eels are a family, Synaphobranchidae, of eels, the only members of the suborder Synaphobranchoidei. They are found worldwide in temperate and tropical seas.
Cutthroat eels range from in length. They are bottom-dwelling fish, found in ...
, believed to be found only near Australia, was identified.
Corals,
echinoderm
An echinoderm () is any member of the phylum Echinodermata (). The adults are recognisable by their (usually five-point) radial symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea ...
s, and
crustacean
Crustaceans (Crustacea, ) form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such animals as decapods, seed shrimp, branchiopods, fish lice, krill, remipedes, isopods, barnacles, copepods, amphipods and mantis shrimp. The crustacean group ...
s make up a large portion of the creatures found on the seamount. These organisms act as
indicator species
A bioindicator is any species (an indicator species) or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other sma ...
, identifying potential problems in the ecosystem.
Seamounts
![Bear Seamount guyot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Bear_Seamount_guyot.jpg)
The New England Seamounts include:
*Allegheny Seamount
*Asterias Seamount
*Balanus Seamount
*
Bear Seamount
The Bear Seamount is a guyot or flat-topped underwater volcano in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the oldest of the New England Seamounts, which was active more than 100 million years ago. It was formed when the North American Plate moved over the New ...
(National Monument)
*Buell Seamount
*Gerda Seamount
*Gilliss Seamount
*Gosnold Seamount (guyot)
*Gregg Seamount (guyot)
*Hodgson Seamount
*Kelvin Seamount (guyot)
*Kiwi Seamount
*Manning Seamount
*Michael Seamount
*Mytilus Seamount (National Monument)
*Nashville Seamount
*Panulirus Seamount
*Picket Seamount
*Physalia Seamount (National Monument)
*Rehoboth Seamount (guyot)
*Retriever Seamount (National Monument)
*San Pablo Seamount
*Sheldrake Seamount
*Vogel Seamount (guyot)
See also
*
New England hotspot
The New England hotspot, also referred to as the Great Meteor hotspot and sometimes the Monteregian hotspot, is a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic Ocean. It created the Monteregian Hills intrusions in Montreal and Montérégie, the White ...
*
Corner Rise Seamounts
The Corner Rise Seamounts are a chain of extinct submarine volcanoes in the northern Atlantic Ocean east of the New England Seamounts. Both it and the New England Seamounts were formed when the North American Plate moved over the Great Meteor ho ...
*
Seewarte Seamounts
References
External links
*{{cite cgndb, id=MADIP, title=New England Seamount Chain, accessdate=2017-02-20
Overview of Studies of NW Atlantic Seamounts for the ISA.International Seabed Authority.
New England
Hotspot volcanoes
Guyots
Seamounts of the Atlantic Ocean
Seamount chains
Hotspot tracks