Abstract
The Laxmi Basin, which is believed to have been formed by the divergence between India and the Laxmi Ridge, contains a seamount chain consisting of the Raman Seamount, Panikkar Seamount and the Wadia Guyot in its axial region. Some authors considered that these seamounts are underlain by stretched continental crust, while others attributed the genesis of these seamounts to an anomalous episode of volcanism resulting from the interaction of the Rèunion hotspot with the extinct spreading centre. In the absence of any direct evidence to these contradicting views, we carried out a detailed multibeam bathymetry survey over a selected sector of this seamount chain and collected a fresh set of high-resolution bathymetry data. Our analysis of this bathymetry data reveals the presence of six semicircular scarp faces enclosing nearly flat seafloor over the Panikkar Seamount, with their morphology resembling with the shape of volcanic calderas. Based on the presence of these caldera-like features, in conjunction with the constraints of plate tectonic framework of this region, we corroborate the volcanic origin for the seamount chain located in the axial part of the Laxmi Basin.
Research highlights
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Presented a high-resolution seafloor image of the Panikkar Seamount.
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Identified six caldera-like features over the Panikkar Seamount.
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Established the volcanic origin for the seamount chain in the Laxmi Basin.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Prof Sunil Kumar Singh, Director, CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO), Goa, India, for providing ship time and granting permission to publish this work. This study forms a part of PhD work of JJS at Goa University. JJS thank Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India, for the financial support under Junior Research Fellowship (Grant No. 31/026(0321)/2019-EMR-I). The cooperation and support received from the Captain and his operational team onboard RV Sindhu Sadhana during the expedition SSD-073 are acknowledged. We thank Dr V J Loveson, Head, Geological Oceanography Division for useful discussions, and Mr S Gautham for the help extended in processing the bathymetry data. We are grateful to an anonymous reviewer for his constructive review and valuable suggestions that improved our manuscript, and to Prof N V Chalapathi Rao for editorial handling. All figures were drafted with the GMT software (Wessel et al. 2019). This is NIO contribution 6836.
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J John Savio: Conceptualized the idea, acquisition and processing of the data, preparation of first draft of the manuscript; V Yatheesh: Conceptualized the idea, interpretation, correction of the manuscript; R Sheldon and M Kallathian: Data acquisition and quality check; Pratima Kessarkar, Kuldeep Kumar, P Mahesh, Subhashree Mishra and Swati Verma: Data acquisition. All authors contributed to the correction and finalization of the manuscript.
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Communicated by N V Chalapathi Rao
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Savio, J.J., Yatheesh, V., Sheldon, R. et al. Caldera-like features located over the Panikkar Seamount and adjacent regions in the Laxmi Basin, eastern Arabian Sea. J Earth Syst Sci 131, 44 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01797-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-021-01797-7