Taukina seamounts are a series of

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 on the

Pacific Plate The Pacific Plate is an oceanic tectonic plate that lies beneath the Pacific Ocean. At , it is the largest tectonic plate. The plate first came into existence 190 million years ago, at the triple junction between the Farallon, Phoenix, and Iza ...

. The

Macdonald hotspot The Macdonald hotspot (also known as "Tubuai" or "Old Rurutu") is a volcanic hotspot in the southern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot was responsible for the formation of the Macdonald Seamount, and possibly the Austral-Cook Islands chain. It probably ...

and the

Ngatemato seamounts Ngatemato seamounts (Name derived from a ruling family in Rapa) are a series of seamounts in the southern Pacific Ocean. These seamounts have the shape of ridges and display calderas. The Aureka () and Make () seamounts are part of the Ngatemato ...

are located nearby. The Taukina and Ngatemato seamounts were discovered in 1996 by the

RV Maurice Ewing RV ''Maurice Ewing'' was a research vessel operated by the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University. It was retired in 2005 and replaced by RV ''Marcus Langseth'' in 2008. Although a multipurpose vessel, ''Maurice Ewing''s notabl ...

and both are named after families in Rapa Iti. The Taukina seamounts are formed by small

volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

es, with heights of and widths of . They often feature a

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 ...

on their summit. Tholeiitic rocks make up the seamounts. The shape of the Taukina seamounts resembles that of the seamounts that form on the

East Pacific Rise The East Pacific Rise is a mid-ocean rise (termed an oceanic rise and not a mid-ocean ridge due to its higher rate of spreading that results in less elevation increase and more regular terrain), a divergent tectonic plate boundary located along ...

. An alternate theory of origin is that the Ngatemato seamounts deformed the Pacific plate enough with their weight to trigger the eruption of magma.

References

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