Emperor Seamounts

The Emperor Seamounts are a chain of submerged volcanic mountains extending from the northwestern Hawaiian Islands in a northwesterly direction until approximately 170º east longitude where they trend north toward the tip of the Aleutian Islands and Kamchatka. The chain's name reflects the naming of many of its individual volcanoes for legendary and historic emperors of Japan (Daikakuji, Yuryaku, Kimmei, Nintoku and Suiko are examples). They were named by Robert Dietz in 1954.

The Emperors are the submerged remnants of volcanic islands of what we now call the Hawaiian Islands and are part of the Hawaii-Emperor Seamount Chain. The age and depth of the ancient volcanoes increases toward the northern tip of the chain. Most of the older Emperors are flat topped seamounts (or guyots) showing evidence of once being reef encircled mountains and then coral atolls[?].

The direction change is evidence of directional change of the Pacific Plate[?] as it moved over the hot spot creating the Hawaiian islands. The plate is being subducted at the trenches bordering the north Pacific rim. One view of the Emperors has been of a hard plate portion that distorted the trench system of the northern Pacific forming the apex seen at the Kuril-Aleutian Trench junction. A look at the from the USGS' map on the Origin of the Hawaiian Islands page clearly shows this "spearpoint." [1] (http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/hawaii/page07)

See: Plate tectonics, Pacific Plate[?], Oceanic trench, Hawaii

External Links

• Evolution of Hawaiian Volcanoes (http://wwwhvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/1995/95_09_08) from the USGS.

• The Formation of the Hawaiian Islands (http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/HCV/haw_formation) with tables and diagrams illustrating the progressive age of the volcanoes.

• Hot Spots and Mantle Plumes (http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/vwlessons/hot_spots/introduction)