The Vitória-Trindade Ridge is a 1200 km long ridge in the western part of the South Atlantic at around 20 degrees south latitude and which is composed of a series of

seamount A seamount is a large submarine landform that rises from the ocean floor without reaching the water surface (sea level), and thus is not an island, islet, or cliff-rock. Seamounts are typically formed from extinct volcanoes that rise abruptly a ...

s and islands. It extends from 40 degrees west on the Brazil coast to 29 degrees west. It is composed of magmatic rocks and is scientifically considered to be the volcanic track of a

mantle plume A mantle plume is a proposed mechanism of convection within the Earth's mantle, hypothesized to explain anomalous volcanism. Because the plume head partially melts on reaching shallow depths, a plume is often invoked as the cause of volcanic ho ...

impinging on the

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

tectonic plate Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

which has thrown up a series of volcanic cones over the last 140 million years since the start of the

Cretaceous period The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ninth and longest geologi ...

. The rocks are formed of an alkaline basalt. The ridge forms a west–east-trending line of submerged mounts and banks that extends from the Brazilian eastern

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

around the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

of Espirito Santo and stretches out into the deep-water portion of the

southern Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. The Trindade Archipelago, located 1200 km away from the coastline, forms its eastern terminus. The ridge only breaks the surface of the South Atlantic to form the

Trindade and Martim Vaz Trindade and Martim Vaz (, ) is an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean about east off the coast of the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo, of which it forms a part. The archipelago has a total area of and a navy-supported research ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

where relatively recent volcanism (

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

) has thrown up substantial cones.

Named high points along the ridge

The following are major high points along the ridge from west to east, all spread along the 20^o South latitude. * Benard bank 40 W * Vitoria sea mount 39 W * Champlain sea mount * Congress bank 38 W * Montague sea mount 37 W * Jaseur sea mount 36 W * Davis bank 35 W * Dogaressa bank 34 W * Columbia sea mount 32 W * Trindade Island 30 W * Martim Vaz Island 29 W

References

Underwater ridges of the Atlantic Ocean {{Ocean-stub

Named high points along the ridge

See also

References