Received: 15 October 2019 | Revised: 31 March 2020 | Accepted: 27 April 2020 DOI: 10.1111/ter.12468 RESEARCH ARTICLE Origin of isolated seamounts in the Canary Basin (East Atlantic): The role of plume material in the origin of seamounts not associated with hotspot tracks Xiaojun Long1 | Jörg Geldmacher1 | Kaj Hoernle1,2 | Folkmar Hauff1 | Jo-Anne Wartho1 | C.-Dieter Garbe-Schönberg2 1GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany Abstract 2Institute of Geosciences, Kiel University, In contrast to seamount chains, small solitary seamounts/seamount groups have Kiel, Germany rarely been sampled despite their large number and therefore their origins remain 40 39 Correspondence enigmatic. Here we present new Ar/ Ar, trace element and Nd-Hf-Pb isotope data Xiaojun Long, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre from the solitary Demenitskoy Seamount, the isolated Tolkien seamount group and for Ocean Research Kiel, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany. the Krylov Seamount and Ridge in the Canary Basin, Central Atlantic Ocean. Their Email:
[email protected] chemical compositions range from intraplate ocean-island-basalt (Demenitskoy) to Funding information mid-ocean-ridge-basalt (Tolkien and Krylov) types. Lavas from all three seamount China Scholarship Council, Grant/Award groups, however, show geochemical evidence for involvement of enriched Canary/ Number: [2015]0672 Cape Verde plume material. Seismic tomography shows that large areas around these mantle plumes consist of dispersed low-velocity material, which could represent dif- fusely-upwelling plume mantle. Melts from such upwelling mantle could form isolated seamounts. Diffuse upwelling of plume material is likely to be extremely widespread but has been poorly studied to date. Significance Statement: A fundamental question concerns the origin of the hundreds of thousands of solitary seamounts and small isolated clusters of such seamounts on the seafloor of the world's ocean basins.