Mid-pacific mountains revisited

Abstract

The Mid-Pacific Mountains are guyots whose volcanic pedestals have been constructed on a broad basement plateau, the flanks of which are downfaulted. Edifice construction may have been controlled by an orthogonal system of intersecting faults trending roughly ENE and NNW. Low amplitude gravity anomalies observed over the Mid-Pacific Mountains indicate complete Airy-Heiskanen isostatic compensation, crustal thickening, and eruption on thin elastic lithosphere. Tholeiites of the Mid-Pacific Mountains resemble lavas of Iceland and the Galapagos Islands. The orthogonal fault system, low gravity anomalies, and lava chemistry of the Mid-Pacific Mountains can be explained by eruption on or near a great ENE-trending rift system.