Global distribution of seamounts from Seasat profiles

A new measurement techique based on a model of a Gaussian seamount loading a thin elastic lithosphere was developed to analyze seamounts that, until then, were not surveyed or seamounts with poor bathymetric coverage. The model predicts that the seamount diameter is equal to the peak-to-trough distance along the vertical deflection profile and that the flexural diameter of a seamount is related to the age of the lithosphere when the seamount formed. This model also suggests that these two measurements are relatively insensitive to the cross-track location from the seamount. These model predictions were confirmed using Seasat altimeter profiles crossing 14 surveyed seamounts in the Pacific. The analysis of the seamount distribution indicated considerable variations in population density and type across the oceans. Most notable among them are the absence of seamounts in the Atlantic, variations in population density across large fracture zones in the Pacific, and the prevalence of small signatures in the Indian Ocean.