10 Facts About Seamounts

Seamounts can be found in every ocean basin in the world, distributed extremely widely both in space and in age.

Seamounts are often found in groupings or submerged archipelagos, a classic example being the Emperor Seamounts, an extension of the Hawaiian Islands.

Seamounts are built in a far more dynamic oceanic setting than their land counterparts, resulting in horizontal subsidence as the seamount moves with the tectonic plate towards a subduction zone.

Seamounts come in a wide variety of structural shapes, from conical to flat-topped to complexly shaped.

Seamounts are exceptionally important to their biome ecologically, but their role in their environment is poorly understood.

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Seamounts provide habitats and spawning grounds for these larger animals, including numerous fish.

Seamounts were first extensively fished in the second half of the 20th century, due to poor management practices and increased fishing pressure seriously depleting stock numbers on the typical fishing ground, the continental shelf.

Seamounts have been the site of targeted fishing since that time.

Seamounts are a possible future source of economically important metals.

Seamounts are abundant, and all have metal resource potential because of various enrichment processes during the seamount's life.