Samoan Hotspot Trail
Submerged and emergent seamounts are conspicuous features of
all the worlds oceans, particularly so in the Pacific where an unknown number — perhaps 30,000 or more —
make up a significant proportion of the sea floor landscape. Often ignored in the past, seamounts today are receiving
increased attention as potential economic resources or as important marine ecosystems worthy of study and protection.
Most seamounts do not rise to near the ocean surface, although they can rise several thousand meters above the ocean floor. Those that do have their summits close to the surface can rise high enough that the shallow marine environments over their peaks can be visualised by sensors in low earth orbit at optical wavelengths — whereas normally more exotic techniques are required.
The Samoan Hot Spot Trail is one such group of seamounts where a number of submerged seamounts rise high enough, and close enough, to the surface to be imaged visually from orbit.
Emergent parts of the Samoan Hotspot Trail include the main islands of the Samoan Archipelago (Savai'i, Upolu, Tutuila, Ofu & Olosega and Ta'u ) the island of Uvea (Wallis & Futuna), and the tiny island of Niulakita — belonging to Tuvalu. The latter being located on the southeastern corner of the large Kosciusko Seamount in the Tuvalu South Banks region.
The Samoan hot spot trail is located northwards from the northern curve of the Tonga Trench. It was created in two major stages: as a sequence of shield volcanoes and smaller satellite volcanoes, that age towards the west, and by prolific volcanism along a rift system that passes through Savai'i and Upolu.