Orca Seamount

Orca Seamount
Location of Orca Seamount
Bathemetric mapping of the seamount, mapped with the swath sonar system of RV Polarstern during cruise ANT-XI/3.
Height ~500 m
Location
Location Near King George Island, Antarctica
Coordinates 62°26′00″S 58°24′00″W / 62.433334°S 58.400002°W / -62.433334; -58.400002
Geology
Type Underwater volcano (Seamount)

Orca Seamount is a seamount (underwater volcano) near King George Island in Antarctica, in the Bransfield Strait. While it is inactive. However last volcanic activity at Orca Seamount is judged to have occurred in the recent past as there are temperature anomalies in the seawater around at the seamount.[1] Thermophilic and hyperthermophilic microorganisms organism have been fount at the seamount.[1]

The crater rim is about 3 km wide and about 500 m above the ocean floor.[2]

The seamount was first named by Professor O. González-Ferrán of Chile in 1987, after the orca (killer whale) often sighted in these waters.[3][4] It was mapped and studied by the ship RV Polarstern during an Antarctic cruise (number ANT-XI/3) in 2005.[5] The variant name of Viehoff Seamount (approved in 6/95 ACUF 263) was named for Dr. Thomas Viehoff, a remote sensing specialist in marine sciences. Name proposed by Dr. G.B. Udintsev, Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry (VIG).[6]

References

  1. 1 2 Rodrigo, Cristian; Blamey, Jenny M.; Huhn, Oliver; Provost, Christine (2018). "Is there an active hydrothermal flux from the orca seamount in the Bransfield Strait, antarctica?". Andean Geology. 45 (3). doi:10.5027/andgeo%25x.
  2. Hatzky, Jörn (2005): The Orca Seamount Region, Antarctica (Sect. 5.5.2). In: Peter C. Wille (ed.), Sound Images of the Ocean in Research and Monitoring, Springer-Verlag Berlin.
  3. "Name Details – Orca Seamount". Catalogue of Antarctic Names. Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  4. "GEBCO Gazetteer of Geographic Names of Undersea Features" (PDF). GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN). January 2010. p. 332. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
  5. Vulcano bransfield-strait hg.png
  6. "Orca Seamount". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. Retrieved 2018-08-11.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.