earth science

Tarava Seamounts

Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts rather than just read about it. In short: The Tarava Seamounts are a group of seamounts in the southern Pacific Ocean, southwest of the Society Islands. They are formed by five guyots and a number of cone-shaped seamounts.

Key takeaways

Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tarava Seamounts from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Tarava Seamounts are a group of seamounts in the southern Pacific Ocean, southwest of the Society Islands. They are formed by five guyots and a number of cone-shaped seamounts. Of Eocene-Oligocene age, they may have formed under the influence of a hotspot.

Geography and geology The Tarava Seamounts are also known as the Savannah Seamounts and were discovered during the 1996 ZEPOLYF1 oceanographic cruise. East of the Tarava Seamounts lie the Va'a Tau Piti seamounts, which were sometimes considered part of the Tarava Seamounts but are considered geologically separate owing to their different configuration (east-west rather than northwest-southeast), which may reflect an origin close to the East Pacific Rise.

Regional Linear chains of volcanoes in the Pacific have been attributed to deep mantle plumes, but a number of such chains appear to correspond to short lasting volcanism, such as processes triggered by tension in the Pacific Plate. The South Pacific superswell is an area of large area of anomalously high topography in the southern Pacific Ocean, where there are many volcanoes and the seafloor is unusually shallow. Asthenospheric processes may be responsible for its existence.

Local The Tarava Seamounts consist of eighteen separate edifices which extend across six longitudes and four latitudes over a length of 700 kilometres (430 mi), 200 kilometres (120 mi) away from the Society Islands. Aside from five large guyots which reach depths of 580 metres (1,900 ft) below sea level, the Tarava Seamounts consist of 4,000–4,500 metres (13,100–14,800 ft) high cones. Among the named edifices are Arere (‘Arere, 16.808333°S 155.193333°W / -16.808333; -155.193333), Fafa Piti (18.961667°S 154.096667°W / -18.961667; -154.096667), Honu (18.376667°S 154.09°W / -18.376667; -154.09), Orio'Mata (‘Ori‘o Mata Seamount 17.813333°S 154.075°W / -17.813333; -154.075), Otaha ( ‘Otaha Seamount 18.758333°S 152.24°W / -18.758333; -152.24), Otu'eroa (‘Otu‘eroa Seamount 18.22°S 152.748333°W / -18.22; -152.748333), Punu Taipu Guyot (19.275°S 150.98°W / -19.275; -150.98) and Ua'ao.(18.916667°S 151.838333°W / -18.916667; -151.838333) The seamounts are considered to be of Eocene-Oligocene age. Only two seamounts have been dated, both by potassium-argon dating: Fafa Piti has yielded ages of 43.5 ± 0.6 million years ago and Punu Taipu of 36.1 ± 0.5 million years ago. Such ages are consistent with an age progressive volcanism caused by a hotspot, whose volcano-building activity was influenced by lithospheric anomalies, considering that there is a discontinuity in the chain which would have formed about 43 million years ago at the time of a major change in the motion of the Pacific Plate. The hotspot in question may be the Foundation hotspot, the Pitcairn hotspot or a now extinct third hotspot. Alternatively, the formation of the Tuamotu Plateau may have induced tectonic stress that propagated towards the location of the future Tarava Seamounts.

Biology Deep-sea animals such as these living on the Tarava Seamounts and their slopes have drawn attention, since they are poorly researched and possibly under threat from climate change and deep-sea mining. The Tarava Seamounts are considered potential mining sites for polymetallic crusts. Several new species have been discovered on the Tarava Seamounts, such as the Lophiodes iwamotoi anglerfish, the cone snail Profundiconus tarava, the majoid crab Samadinia longispina and pectinoid Parvamussium vesiculosum. Numerous deep-sea rissoidae snails have been described from the Tarava Seamounts. Other species found there are Propeamussium watsoni together with five other pectinoids, and tonnoidean gastropods.

References

Sources

External links The context of the TARASOC cruise, description of some species found on the Tarava seamounts. Peñas A. & Rolán E., 2017 Deep water Pyramidelloidea from the Central and south Pacific. The Tibe Chrysallidini. ECIMAT (Estación de Ciencias Mariñas de Toralla) - Universidade de Vigo, 412 pp

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tarava Seamounts

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts

In research: Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts 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: Tarava Seamounts is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Geology of the Pacific Ocean, Guyots, Hotspots of the Pacific Ocean, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tarava Seamounts means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Tarava Seamounts in simple terms?

The Tarava Seamounts are a group of seamounts in the southern Pacific Ocean, southwest of the Society Islands. They are formed by five guyots and a number of cone-shaped seamounts.

Why does Tarava Seamounts 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 Tarava Seamounts?

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 Tarava Seamounts.