Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits observed from bottom photography taken during the INDOMED-1 expedition

35 km either side of the Pacific-Cocos spreading axis at 846'N, on crust 0.6 x 10SUP-6 years old, a pair of small seamounts rises 1.4 km above the faulted terrain of young abyssal hills. A high-resolution traverse made with the sonars and cameras of a deeply towed vehicle shows that the seamounts are inactive volcanoes, with concave side slopes that steepen upwards to 30, and then abruptly flatten at 2-4 km wide summits. Ledges of pillow basalt outcrop on the lower slopes, and form some talus slopes, but the superficial rock of the upper slopes appear to be mainly hyaloclastite. A transponder-navigated deep-tow survey at the summit area of the eastern seamount mapped an asymmetric caldera containing 3 pit craters, which have vertical walls and flat floors. Dredging across the caldera floor recovered hyaloclastite, angular fragments of primitive tholeiite, and manganese nodules. The paired seamounts probably had a common origin at a 'hot spot' on the spreading axis; continued to grow after they were split by sea-floor spreading; and became extinct and suffered summit collapse after they spread too far from their magma source.