Bermuda-New England Seamount Arc

Abstract

The seamounts that are known to exist along the 1000-mile arc between Bermuda and Georges Banks are believed to be extinct volcanoes that erupted on the ocean floor prior to Cretaceous time. A chart of the area showing the results of a joint effort by Hudson Laboratories, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the Navy Hydrographic Office is presented and shows 24 seamounts to be definitely located. The whole sea-mount arc is called the Bermuda-New England Seamount Arc, and the seamounts are classified into two groups, single-peaked and multiple-peaked mounts. The single-peaked mounts are generally somewhat smaller and lie on the New England end of the arc. Gravity anomalies are associated with two of these seamounts (Shurbet and Worzel, 1955). The largest seamount occurs where the trend of the arc changes from northeasterly out of Bermuda to northwesterly toward Cape Cod. The abrupt angle that the seamounts9 flanks make with the surrounding abyssal plain suggests that sediment has filled up the intermount areas and has lapped up on the seamounts9 flanks. The sediment is thought to be transported to the area by turbidity currents that flow down the canyons in the continental shelf. One of these canyons is described.