Discovery Seamounts

Discovery Seamounts
Southern Atlantic Ocean
Location
Location	Southern Atlantic Ocean
Coordinates	42°00′S 0°12′E / 42°S 0.2°E / -42; 0.2[1]

The Discovery Seamounts are a chain of seamounts in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, including Discovery Seamount. The seamounts are 850 kilometres (530 mi) east of Gough Island and once formed islands. Various volcanic rocks as well as glacial dropstones and sediments have been dredged from the Discovery Seamounts.

The Discovery Seamounts appear to be a volcanic seamount chain produced by the Discovery hotspot, whose earliest eruptions occurred either in the ocean, Cretaceous kimberlite fields in southern Namibia or the Karoo-Ferrar large igneous province. The seamounts formed between 41 and 35 million years ago; presently the hotspot is thought to lie southwest of the seamounts, where there are geological anomalies in rocks from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that may reflect the presence of a neighbouring hotspot.