A Chinese research team has found that the origin of Caroline Seamount in the west of the Pacific Ocean offers close evidence to the mantle plume hypothesis.
The hypothesis, proposed by scientists nearly half a century ago, provides an explanation for origins of the ocean floor plateau and seamount chain at the bottom of the ocean. However, it has never been proved.
According to the hypothesis, an explosion-like phenomenon occurs at the junction of the core and mantle about 2,800 km away from the Earth's surface. It helps form the ocean floor plateau and the seamount chain.
Through scientific sampling and laboratory analysis, the Chinese research team with the Institute of Oceanology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences found that the basalts of the Caroline seamount were formed earlier than those of a seamount chain nearby, and the isotopes of the basalts in the two places are very similar.
"It indicates that the ocean floor plateau and seamount chain probably came from the same mantle plume," said Zhang Guoliang, a researcher with the institute. "It is by far the best example to prove the mantle plume hypothesis."
The basalt samples were obtained by a research team led by Zhang during a probe mission by the Kexue (Science) scientific ship in 2015.
The finding has been published in the online edition of the journal Chemical Geology. (Xinhua)
China's first self-designed deep-sea exploration vessel, Haiyang Liuhao, left the port city of Guangzhou on Tuesday for research in the Pacific Ocean. The vessel, on its fifth research expedition since being delivered for use in October 2009, set off at 10 a.m. with 130 researchers on board and carrying unmanned submersible Haima. It is due to return in the middle of November, according to China's marine geological authorities.
Chinese scientists on board the research vessel Kexue have discovered coral gardens and sponge forests for the first time in an oligotrophic area of the western Pacific Ocean over the past two days. The coral gardens and sponge forests have been observed in the east ridge of the Caroline Seamount, located in the south of the Mariana Trench, the deepest spot on Earth, said Xu Kuidong, chief scientist on board the ship, whose name in Chinese means "science."
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