Models for the evolution of seamounts

SUMMARY Seamounts are volcanic constructs that litter the seafloor. They important for understanding numerous aspects of marine science, such as plate tectonics, melt budget, oceanic circulation, tsunami wave diffraction, tidal energy dissipation and mass wasting. Geometrically, seamounts come in many sizes shapes, purpose modelling them morphological, gravimetric or isostatic studies it is convenient to have simple analytical models whose properties well known. Here, we present a family seamount may be used studies, covering both initial construction phase later mass-wasting by sectoral collapses. We also derive realistic axisymmetric density variations compatible with observed first-order structure from seismic tomography studies.