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Gravity field analysis of Sio Guyot: An isostatically compensated seamount in the Mid-Pacific Mountains

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Abstract

Positive gravity anomalies indicate two dense conduits or eruptive centers beneath the northern summit of Sio Guyot, western Mid-Pacific Mountains. The low amplitude of the positive anomalies and the gravity lows flanking the guyot can be explained by crust 2.5 times the normal Pacific Ocean crustal thickness extending to a depth of 22 ± 2 km. The excess mass of the seamount is 100% locally isostatically compensated by the mass deficit below; this compensation may result from flexural loading and voluminous sill injection near a former ridge-crest transform fault system trending roughly ENE and NNW.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hawaii Institute of Geophysics, University of Hawaii, 96822, Honolulu, HI

    James N. Kellogg & I. Jonathan Ogujiofor

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  1. James N. Kellogg
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  2. I. Jonathan Ogujiofor
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Kellogg, J.N., Ogujiofor, I.J. Gravity field analysis of Sio Guyot: An isostatically compensated seamount in the Mid-Pacific Mountains. Geo-Marine Letters 5, 91–97 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233933

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02233933

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