Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
international hydrographic review logo

Contents

1947: Vol. XXIV

Drowned Ancient Islands of the Pacific Basin

Submitted
July 31, 2018
Published
2018-05-24

Abstract

Some one hundred and sixty curious flat-topped peaks have been discovered in the Pacific Basin between Hawaii and the Marianas. They appear to be truncated volcanic islands rising about nine to twelve thousand feet from the ocean floor. The flat level summits generally range from three to six thousand feet below sea level. Some less-developed ones are deeper. The flat upper surface is commonly bordered by a gently-sloping shelf a mile or two wide. The summit surfaces are apparently not all of the same age since adjacent peaks may have flat tops which differ in elevation by as much as a thousand feet, though in some cases groups of peaks do have the same elevation. The relationships to atolls of the Marshall Islands group indicate that the surfaces are older than the atoll formation. An hypothesis is tentatively advanced suggesting that the summit surfaces are very old and possibly represent marine planation surfaces in a pre-Cambrian ocean in which reef-building organisms did not exist. It is suggested that the present depths of the surfaces may be accounted for by the relative rise of the ocean surface as a result of accumulation of sediments on the floor. Thus the deeper the surfaces are, the greater their age.