The Paleo Dutton Plateau: A Geomorphologic Conundrum

Abstract

Guyots on the Dutton Ridge are used to explain the pre-existence of a plateau in the NW Pacific region. The idea was basically proposed in a 1983 paper but was not proven until the discovery of the basin-wide N-S fracture zone/mega-trends and the orthogonal intersections in the 1990s. The proposal is based on the multibeam sonar-based morphology itself and the intersections of both E-W Mendocino/Surveyor megatrends and N-S Udintsev/Kashima megatrends converging there.

Keywords

• guyots
• megatrend intersections
• fracture zones
• multibeam bathymetry