Protector Shoal
Encyclopedia
Submarine volcano
Submarine volcanoes are underwater fissures in the Earth's surface from which magma can erupt. They are estimated to account for 75% of annual magma output. The vast majority are located near areas of tectonic plate movement, known as ocean ridges...
, also called seamount
Seamount
A seamount is a mountain rising from the ocean seafloor that does not reach to the water's surface , and thus is not an island. These are typically formed from extinct volcanoes, that rise abruptly and are usually found rising from a seafloor of depth. They are defined by oceanographers as...
, which rises gently from an ocean depth of 1200 meters to about 27 m (88.6 ft) below sea level 56 km to the northwest of Zavodovski Island
Zavodovski Island
Zavodovski Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Traversay Islands group of the South Sandwich Islands. It lies southeast of South Georgia Island...
in the South Sandwich Islands chain. The last eruption occurred during March 1962. Protector Shoal is the only volcano in the arc that has erupted rhyolite
Rhyolite
This page is about a volcanic rock. For the ghost town see Rhyolite, Nevada, and for the satellite system, see Rhyolite/Aquacade.Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic rock, of felsic composition . It may have any texture from glassy to aphanitic to porphyritic...
pumice
Pumice
Pumice is a textural term for a volcanic rock that is a solidified frothy lava typically created when super-heated, highly pressurized rock is violently ejected from a volcano. It can be formed when lava and water are mixed. This unusual formation is due to the simultaneous actions of rapid...
.