Petrogenesis of Alkalic Seamounts on the Galápagos Platform Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography

In the hotspot-fed Galápagos Archipelago there are transitions between volcano morphology and composition, effective elastic thickness of the crust, and lithospheric thickness in the direction of plate motion from west to east. Through sampling on the island scale it is unclear whether these transitions are gradational or sharp and whether they result in a gradational or a sharp boundary in terms of the composition of erupted lavas. Clusters of interisland seamounts are prevalent on the Galápagos Platform, and occur in the transition zone in morphology between western and eastern volcanoes providing an opportunity to evaluate sharpness of the compositional boundary resulting from these physical transitions. Two of these seamounts, located east of Isabela Island and southwest of the island of Santiago, were sampled by remotely operated vehicle in 2015 during a telepresence-supported E/V Nautilus cruise, operated by the Ocean Exploration Trust. We compare the chemistries of these seamount lavas with samples erupted subaerially on the islands of Isabela and Santiago, to test whether seamounts are formed from melt generation and storage similar to that of the western or eastern volcanoes, or transitional between the two systems. Grant no. NA13OAR4600094 Grant no. NA17NOS4290190