Suiyo Seamount is a

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 ...

(

submarine volcano Submarine volcanoes are underwater vents or fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. Many submarine volcanoes are located near areas of tectonic plate formation, known as mid-ocean ridges. The volcanoes at mid-ocean ridges ...

) off the eastern coast of Japan, directly south of Torishima and Sofugan volcano at the southern tip of the

Izu Islands The are a group of volcanic islands stretching south and east from the Izu Peninsula of Honshū, Japan. Administratively, they form two towns and six villages; all part of Tokyo Prefecture. The largest is Izu Ōshima, usually called simply Ō ...

. The volcano is one of the Shichiyo Seamounts, a small group of submarine volcanoes named after different days of the week ("Suiyo" means "Wednesday" in Japanese). Suiyo consists of a

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic to

dacitic Dacite () is a volcanic rock formed by rapid solidification of lava that is high in silica and low in alkali metal oxides. It has a fine-grained (aphanitic) to porphyritic texture and is intermediate in composition between andesite and rhyolite ...

submarine

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

and

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions on ...

, and rises about from its base on the sea floor to within of the surface. Suiyo has a prominent summit caldera, wide and deep. The volcano's excised (weathered) structure suggests that it is of older age then some of the other volcanoes in the group. Suiyo is covered by a thick

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

cap, a feature that collects over a long span of inactivity, and fault patterns and valleys have been observed on its flanks. Suiyo Seamount is associated with a

magnetic anomaly In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by overlying ...

: ocean-floor surveys of it and the surrounding area found that a large negative rock body existed to the east of the seamount, while positive bodies existed to the northwest and south. The reasons for this complex anomaly, which also exists in several other nearby seamounts, are unknown, but is suggested to be the result of interactions between different

magnetic field A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...

s of different ages. A burst of

hydrothermal activity Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...

was observed in July 1991, raising water temperatures at the vent to ; following the event, the volcano, until then thought extinct, was reclassified as active by the

Japan Meteorological Agency The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...

. A bathymetric survey of the volcano found sulfur-oxidizing microbes to be predominant, and concluded that Suiyo Seamount was a natural "incubator" for this bacterial type.

References

{{reflist Magnetic anomalies Seamounts of the Pacific Ocean

See also

References