Orca Seamount | |
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Location of Orca Seamount
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Bathemetric mapping of the seamount, mapped with the swath sonar system of RV Polarstern during cruise ANT-XI/3.
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Height | ~500 m |
Location | |
Location | Near King George Island, Antarctica |
Coordinates | 62°26′00″S 58°24′00″W / 62.433334°S 58.400002°W |
Geology | |
Type | Underwater volcano (Seamount) |
Orca Seamount is a seamount (underwater volcano) near King George Island in Antarctica, in the Bransfield Strait. It is inactive.
The crater rim is about 3 km wide and about 500 m above the ocean floor.
The seamount was first named by Professor O. González-Ferrán of Chile in 1987, after the orca (killer whale) often sighted in these waters. It was mapped and studied by the ship RV Polarstern during an Antarctic cruise (number ANT-XI/3) in 2005. The variant name of Viehoff Seamount (approved in 6/95 ACUF 263) was named for Dr. Thomas Viehoff, a remote sensing specialist in marine sciences. Name proposed by Dr. G.B. Udintsev, Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry (VIG).