Lithospheric age dependence of Off‐Ridge Volcano production in the North Pacific

Abstract

Data for numbers of seamounts on North Pacific Ocean crust of different age indicate that the production rate of new off‐ridge seamounts (volcanoes) is proportional to the inverse of the square root of the age of the lithosphere. This observation is consistent with several hypotheses which have been offered to explain the origin of off‐ridge oceanic volcanism and, in combination with petrologic and paleomagnetic evidence for small oceanic volcanoes, leads to a new self‐consistent model for off‐ridge volcanism. In this model, the production rate of off‐ridge volcanoes is controlled primarily by the availability of fracture‐zone conduit systems in the thickening lithosphere. In contrast, mantle plume or "hotspot" volcanoes may punch through the oceanic lithosphere. Decreasing production rate of off‐ridge volcanoes on old oceanic lithosphere may be associated with decreasing extent of partial melting of chemically and isotopically heterogeneous mantle material.