earth science

Lord Howe Seamount Chain

Lord Howe Seamount Chain is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lord Howe Seamount Chain rather than just read about it. In short: The Lord Howe Seamount Chain formed during the Miocene. It features many coral-capped guyots and is one of the two parallel seamount chains alongside the east coast of Australia; the Lord Howe and Tasmantid seamount chains both run north-south through parts of the Coral Sea and Tasman Sea.

Key takeaways

Lord Howe Seamount Chain belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lord Howe Seamount Chain to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lord Howe Seamount Chain from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Lord Howe Seamount Chain formed during the Miocene. It features many coral-capped guyots and is one of the two parallel seamount chains alongside the east coast of Australia; the Lord Howe and Tasmantid seamount chains both run north-south through parts of the Coral Sea and Tasman Sea. These chains have longitudes of approximately 159°E and 156°E respectively.

Geography The Lord Howe Seamount Chain has been known under a variety of different gazetted names, including the Lord Howe Seamounts, Lord Howe Guyots, Lord Howe Rise Guyots and the Middleton Chain. The Lord Howe Seamount Chain is on the western slope of Lord Howe Rise, a deep-sea elevated plateau which is a submerged part of Zealandia. The Tasmantid and Lord Howe seamount chains are both broadly within the Tasman basin which is the abyssal plain between Lord Howe Rise and the Australian continental shelf. The two chains lie on opposite sides of the Dampier Ridge which is believed to be a submerged continental fragment, that is over 250 million years old, and had split from the Australian plate during Tasman Sea formation. Earlier magnetic studies suggest that the Dampier Ridge is adjunct to the Tasman Sea's former extinct mid oceanic ridge, and it had been postulated to be much younger. The Lord Howe Seamount Chain extends from north of the Chesterfield group of islands (17°S) to Flinders Seamount (34.7°S). It includes the officially named Nova Bank, Argo and Kelso seamounts, Capel and Gifford guyots, Middleton and Elizabeth reefs, Lord Howe Island and Ball's Pyramid.

Geology The Lord Howe and Tasmantid chains each resulted from the Indo-Australian Plate moving northward over a stationary hotspot; historically the hotspot for the Lord Howe chain was expected to presently be beneath Flinders Seamount. but is now thought likely to be somewhat to the south of this, possibly beyond the Heemskerck and Zeehaen seamounts. Indeed the dating of this chain has only been as far south as Lord Howe Island which erupted 6.5 million years ago and there are other gaps in relevant knowledge of this hotspot chain. The chain has now been characterised by compositional analysis to be related at 28 million years to the South Rennell Trough spreading center as its potential initiation point with lessening magma being erupted progressively as the younger seamounts of the hot spot were formed. On the Australian mainland, a third north-south sequence of extinct volcanoes (which includes the Glass House Mountains) is likely to have the same origin. The Lord Howe Seamount Chain includes the following features:

See also Lord Howe Marine Park Gifford Marine Park

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lord Howe Seamount Chain

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lord Howe Seamount Chain claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lord Howe Seamount Chain before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lord Howe Seamount Chain ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lord Howe Seamount Chain

In research: Lord Howe Seamount Chain appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lord Howe Seamount Chain in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lord Howe Seamount Chain is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Guyots, Hotspot tracks, Seamount chains, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lord Howe Seamount Chain outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lord Howe Seamount Chain in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lord Howe Seamount Chain means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lord Howe Seamount Chain out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lord Howe Seamount Chain in simple terms?

Why does Lord Howe Seamount Chain matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lord Howe Seamount Chain?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lord Howe Seamount Chain.