Jasper Seamount

Jasper Seamount is a seamount (underwater volcano) located in the Fieberling-Guadalupe seamount track, west of Baja California, Mexico. The seamount has been the site of detailed geophysical, geological, and geochemical studies over the years at Jasper have advanced its understandment. Jasper Seamount is somewhat elongate volcano, with a northwest-northeast elongated summit and several volcanic cones near the summit. Dredge huals and ocean-bottom seismometers cover and have covered much of the seamount, and dredge hual analysis and detailed studies have given scientists an in-depth understanding of the seamount's internal structure; knowledge of the seamount geologically approaches that of subaerial volcanoes.

The model of Jasper Seamount developed closesly resembles the model found in the Hawaiian islands, in particular the stage-like eruption of increasingly alkalic rock. More then 90% of the volcano is made up of tholeiitic to alkalic basalt. Fifteen dredges on the summit and upper flanks of Jasper Seamount recovered a wide variety of rock, including pillow lava, vesicular lapillistones (evidence of shallow submarine volcanism), and a range of xenoliths.

The base of Jasper Seamount was built 11.5 - 10 million years ago. The volcanics at the seamount's base resemble those to be found at Hawaiʻi volcanics. The volcano's flanks was built 8.7 - 7.5 million years ago, and its summit 4.8 - 4.1 million years ago. The maintanance of a near-constant SiO₂ ratio over this time is seen as a sign of increasingly lower degrees of mantle melting. Overall the eruptive processes at Jasper, even in trace elements to Hawaiian volcanics, despite Jasper's much smaller size (690 km³ (166 cu mi)) versus Hawaiian volcanoes (~3,000 km³ (720 cu mi)