Zealandia Bank
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...
they rise from, in the Northern Mariana Islands
Northern Mariana Islands
The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , is a commonwealth in political union with the United States, occupying a strategic region of the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines...
chain situated 11 miles NNE of Sarigan
Sarigan
Sarigan is a small island in the Northern Mariana Island chain. It is the result of a Holocene Era stratovolcano with no known historic eruptions, although a swarm of volcano-tectonic earthquakes took place here in the summer of 2005....
. These two pinnacles are 1/2 mile apart from each other; one reaches more than a meter above sea level at low tide. Due to their small size, Zealandia Bank is not often depicted on maps of the Northern Mariana Islands.
The bank was named in 1858 after the British barque Zealandia. It had also been called Piedras de Torres or Farallon de Torres.http://gaebler.info/sonstiges/marianen.htm#zealandia.