Nature 266, 344 - 346 (24 March 1977); doi:10.1038/266344a0

J. Tuzo Wilson Knolls: Canadian hotspot

R. L. CHASE

Department of Geological Science, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

A YOUNG submarine volcano at the base of the continental slope west of Canada has been named after the Canadian geophysicist J. Tuzo Wilson. The volcano is capped by hawaiite, and has an angular separation from a proposed pole of rotation of the Pacific plate and the hotspot frame of reference close to separations for the Kodiak−Bowie seamount chain, suggesting that a hotspot which generated the seamount chain now lies beneath the young volcano. Radiogenic ages of some seamounts of the chain support this hypothesis.

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