Abstract
Most oceanic plateaux are massive basaltic volcanoes. However, the structure of these volcanoes, and how they erupt and evolve, is unclear, because they are remote and submerged beneath the oceans. Here we use multichannel seismic profiles and rock samples taken from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program core sites to analyse the structure of the Tamu Massif, the oldest and largest edifice of the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau in the north-western Pacific Ocean. We show that the Tamu Massif is a single, immense volcano, constructed from massive lava flows that emanated from the volcano centre to form a broad, shield-like shape. The volcano has anomalously low slopes, probably due to the high effusion rates of the erupting lavas. We suggest that the Tamu Massif could be the largest single volcano on Earth and that it is comparable in size to the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons on Mars. Our data document a class of oceanic volcanoes that is distinguished by its size and morphology from the thousands of seamounts found throughout the oceans.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$259.00 per year
only $21.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Change history
06 September 2013
In the version of this Article originally published online, the published online date should have read '5 September 2013'. This has been corrected in the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.
References
Richards, M. A., Duncan, R. A. & Courtillot, V. E. Flood basalts and hot-spot tracks: Plume heads and tails. Science 246, 103–107 (1989).
Coffin, M. F. & Eldholm, O. Large igneous provinces: Crustal structure, dimensions, and external consequences. Rev. Geophys. 32, 1–36 (1994).
Campbell, I. H. Large igneous provinces and the mantle plume hypothesis. Elements 1, 265–269 (2005).
Saunders, A. D. et al. Regional uplift associated with continental large igneous provinces: The roles of mantle plumes and the lithosphere. Chem. Geol. 241, 282–318 (2007).
Korenaga, J. Why did not the Ontong Java Plateau form subaerially? Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 234, 385–399 (2005).
Foulger, G. R. in Plates, Plumes, and Planetary Processes Vol. 430 (eds Foulger, G. R. & Jurdy, D. M.) 1–28 (Special Paper, GSA, 2007).
Rogers, G. C. Oceanic plateaus as meteorite impact structures. Nature 299, 341–342 (1982).
Sager, W. W., Kim, J., Klaus, A., Nakanishi, M. & Khankishieva, L. M. Bathymetry of Shatsky Rise, northwest Pacific Ocean: Implications for ocean plateau development at a triple junction. J. Geophys. Res. 104, 7557–7576 (1999).
Nakanishi, M., Sager, W. W. & Klaus, A. Magnetic lineations within Shatsky Rise, northwest Pacific Ocean: Implications for hot spot-triple junction interaction and oceanic plateau formation. J. Geophys. Res. 104, 7539–7556 (1999).
Mahoney, J. J., Duncan, R. A., Tejada, M. L. G., Sager, W. W. & Bralower, T. J. Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary age and mid-ocean ridge type mantle source for Shatsky Rise. Geology 33, 185–188 (2005).
Sager, W. W., Sano, T. & Geldmacher, J. Expedition 324 Scientists. Proc. IODP 324 (2010).
Sager, W. W., Sano, T. & Geldmacher, J. How do oceanic plateaus form? Clues from drilling at Shatsky Rise. EOS, Trans. AGU 92, 37–44 (2011).
Ballard, R. D., Holcomb, R. T. & Van Andel, Tj. H. The Galapagos Rift at 86° W: 3. Sheet flows, collapse pits, and lava lakes of the rift valley. J. Geophys. Res. 84, 5407–5422 (1979).
McClinton, T., White, S. M., Colman, A. & Sinton, J. M. Reconstructing lava flow emplacement processes at the hotspot-affected Galapagos spreading center, 95° W and 92° W. Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. (in the press 2013).
Self, S., Thordarson, T. & Keszthelyi, L. in Large Igneous Provinces, Continental, Oceanic, and Planetary Flood Volcanism Vol. 100 (eds Mahoney, J. J. & Coffin, M. F.) 381–410 (Geophysical Monograph Series, AGU, 1997).
Jerram, D.W. & Widdowson, M. The anatomy of continental flood basalt provinces: Geological constraints on the processes and products of flood volcanism. Lithos 79, 385–405 (2005).
Bryan, S. E. et al. The largest volcanic eruptions on Earth. Earth-Sci. Rev. 102, 207–229 (2010).
Bryan, S. E. & Ferrari, L. Large igneous provinces and silicic large igneous provinces: Progress in our understanding over the last 25 years. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 125, 1053–1078 (2013).
Keszthelyi, L. & Self, S. Some physical requirements for the emplacement of long basaltic lava flows. J. Geophys. Res. 103, 27447–24464 (1998).
Gregg, T. K. P. & Fornari, D. J. Long submarine lava flows: Observations and results from numerical modeling. J. Geophys. Res. 103, 27517–27531 (1998).
Shipboard Scientific Party Leg 192 Summary. Proc. ODP, Init. Repts. 192, 1–72 (2001).
Korenaga, J. & Sager, W. W. Seismic tomography of Shatsky Rise by adaptive importance sampling. J. Geophys. Res. 117, B08102 (2012).
Smith, D. K. Shape analysis of Pacific seamounts. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 90, 457–466 (1988).
Planke, S. & Eldholm, O. Seismic response and construction of seaward dipping wedges of flood basalts: Vøring volcanic margin. J. Geophys. Res. 99, 9263–9278 (1994).
Planke, S., Symonds, P. A., Alvestad, E. & Skogseid, J. Seismic volcanostratigraphy of large-volume basaltic extrusive complexes on rifted margins. J. Geophys. Res. 105, 19335–19351 (2000).
Rotstein, Y., Schlich, R. & Munschy, M. Structure and tectonic history of the southern Kerguelen Plateau (Indian Ocean) deduced from seismic reflection data. Tectonics 11, 1332–1247 (1992).
Uenzelmann-Neben, G., Gohl, K., Ehrhart, A. & Seargent, M. Agulhas Plateau, SW Indian Ocean: New Evidence for excessive volcanism. Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 1941–1944 (1999).
Inoue, H., Coffin, M. F., Nakamura, Y., Mochizuki, K. & Kroenke, L. W. Intrabasement reflections of the Ontong Java Plateau: Implications for plateau construction. Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. 9, Q04014 (2008).
Klaus, A. & Sager, W. W. Data report: High-resolution site survey seismic reflection data for ODP Leg 198 drilling on Shatsky Rise, northwest Pacific. Proc. ODP, Init. Repts. 198, 1–21 (2002).
MacDonald, G. A. Volcanoes (Prentice Hall, 1972).
Stearns, H. T. Geology of the State of Hawaii 2nd edn (Pacific Books, 1985).
Walker, G. P. L. in Encyclopedia of Volcanoes (eds Sigurdsson, H., Houghton, B., Rymer, H., Stix, J. & McNutt, S.) 283–289 (Academic, 2000).
Cashman, K. V. & Sparks, R. S. J. How volcanoes work: A 25 year perspective. Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 125, 664–690 (2013).
Sigmundsson, F. Iceland Geodynamics: Crustal Deformation and Divergent Plate Tectonics (Springer, 2005).
Wu, S. S. C., Garcia, P. A., Jordan, R., Schafer, F. J. & Skiff, B. A. Topography of the shield volcano, Olympus Mons on Mars. Nature 309, 432–435 (1984).
Comer, R. P., Solomon, S. C. & Head, J. W. Mars: Thickness of the lithosphere from the tectonic response of volcanic loads. Rev. Geophys. 23, 61–92 (1985).
Wesssel, P. Global distribution of seamounts inferred from gridded Geosat/ERS-1 altimetry. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 19431–19441 (2001).
Watts, A. B., Sandwell, D. T., Smith, W. H. F. & Wessel, P. Global gravity, bathymetry, and the distribution of submarine volcanism through space and time. J. Geophys. Res. 111, B08408 (2006).
Self, S., Jay, A. E., Widdowson, M. & Keszthelyi, L. P. Correlation of the Deccan and Rajamundry trap lavas: Are these the longest and largest flows on Earth? J. Volc. Geotherm. Res. 172, 3–19 (2008).
Sano, T. et al. Variety and origin of magmas on Shatsky Rise, northwest Pacific Ocean. Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. 13, Q08010 (2012).
Sinton, J. M. & Detrick, R. S. Mid-ocean ridge magma chambers. J. Geophys. Res. 97, 197–216 (1992).
Mutter, J. C. Seaward dipping reflectors and the continent-ocean boundary at passive continental margins. Tectonophysics 114, 117–131 (1985).
Menzies, M. A., Klemperer, S. L., Ebinger, C. J. & Baker, J. in Volcanic Rifted Margins Vol. 632 (eds Menzies, M. A., Klemperer, S. L., Ebinger, C. J. & Baker, J.) 1–14 (Special Paper, GSA, 2002).
Eldholm, O., Thiede, J. & Taylor, E. Evolution of the Vøring continental margin. Proc. ODP, Sci. Res. 104, 1033–1065 (1989).
Smith, W. H. F. & Sandwell, D. T. Global seafloor topography from satellite altimetry and ship depth soundings: Evidence for stochastic reheating of the oceanic lithosphere. Science 277, 1566–1962 (1997).
Koppers, A. A. P. et al. Massive basalt flows on the southern flank of Tamu Massif, Shatsky Rise: A reappraisal of ODP Site 1213 basement units. Proc. IODP 324 (2010).
Acknowledgements
This research used data provided by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. IODP is sponsored by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and participating countries under management by Consortium for Ocean Leadership. We thank the captain and crew onboard the R/V Marcus G. Langseth for assistance in collecting seismic data. We gratefully acknowledge the invaluable assistance of Robert Steinhaus and his team for seismic data acquisition. This research was supported by NSF grants OCE-0926611 and OCE-0926945.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Seismic data were collected by W.W.S., J.Z. and J.K., with processing by J.Z. Authors W.W.S., A.A.P.K., J.J.M., T.S. and M.W. collaborated on IODP Expedition 324 and assimilated those findings into this study. The manuscript was written by W.W.S. with extensive input from all authors.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information (PDF 17475 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sager, W., Zhang, J., Korenaga, J. et al. An immense shield volcano within the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau, northwest Pacific Ocean. Nature Geosci 6, 976–981 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1934
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1934
This article is cited by
-
Mantle plumes and their role in Earth processes
Nature Reviews Earth & Environment (2021)
-
Oceanic plateau formation by seafloor spreading implied by Tamu Massif magnetic anomalies
Nature Geoscience (2019)
-
Plateaus from seafloor spreading
Nature Geoscience (2019)
-
Identification of the fronts from the Kuroshio Extension to the Subarctic Current using absolute dynamic topographies in satellite altimetry products
Journal of Oceanography (2018)
-
Morphology of Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau from high resolution bathymetry
Marine Geophysical Research (2017)