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[1] Multichannel seismic reflection studies and seismic refraction surveys with ocean bottom seismographs in the Marcus-Wake seamount chain in the northwestern Pacific Ocean reveal P wave velocity structures of hot spot-origin seamounts and adjacent oceanic crust. Inside the seamounts are central high-velocity (>6.5 km/s) structures extending nearly to the top that may indicate intrusive cores. Thick sediment layers (up to 4 km) with P wave velocities of 4-5 km/s have accumulated on seafloor that predates seamount formation. Downward crustal thickening of up to 2 km was documented beneath a large seamount cluster, but thickening was not confirmed below a small seamount cluster. Volume ratios of an intrusive core to a seamount body are 15-20%, indicating that most of the supplied magma was consumed in forming the thick sedimentary and volcaniclastic layer constituting the seamount flanks. Underplating and downward crustal thickening may tend to occur when second or later intrusive cores are formed in a seamount. P wave velocities in the lowest crust and in the uppermost mantle below the seamount chain are 0.1-0.2 km/s higher and 0.3-0.5 km/s lower, respectively, than velocities below oceanic crust. We explain this difference as a result of sill-like intrusion of magma into the lower crust and uppermost mantle. Reflected waves observed at offsets >200 km are from mantle reflectors at depths of 30-45 km and 55-70 km. The shallower reflectors may indicate structures formed by intraplate igneous activities, and the deeper reflectors may correspond to the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary.

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Seismic refraction and reflection measurements were made along three profiles across the Shikoku Basin, one of the three backarc basins on the Philippine Sea plate. The P-wave velocity models show the presence of a very large horizontal irregularity related to the seamounts on the extinct spreading center, transition zones from the Shikoku Basin to Kyushu-Palau Ridge, and from the Shikoku Basin to the Izu-Ogasawara Island arc. However, the other areas were found to have features similar to those of a normal oceanic crustal model composed of oceanic Layer 2 with a high velocity gradient and Layer 3 with a small velocity gradient. The Shikoku backarc basin oceanic crust was found to be characterized by a thinner igneous crust, especially in Layer 3, and the azimuthal anisotropy in the uppermost mantle expected from the seafloor spreading was not detected.

Three large bathymetric highs (from north to south: the Amami Plateau, the Daito Ridge, and the Oki-Daito Ridge) originating from paleo-island arcs characterize the northwestern end of the Philippine Sea plate. We obtained 10 seismic refraction and multi-channel seismic reflection profiles across and along these bathymetric highs and obtained P wave velocity (Vp) models of the crust and the uppermost mantle. Although there are large variations in the crustal structure throughout this region, these bathymetric highs usually have a middle crust with Vp of 6.3 to 6.8 km/s, a lower crust with Vp of 6.8 to 7.2 km/s, a Pn velocity of 7.6 to 7.8 km/s, and a total crustal thickness of 15 to 25 km. These features are similar to those of the Izu-Ogasawara (Bonin)-Mariana island arc and the Kyushu-Palau Ridge, which are immature paleo-island arcs. However, the crust at the southwestern part of the Oki-Daito Ridge contains a relatively thin middle crust and a smaller total crustal thickness compared with other ridges in this region. In addition, we identified a deep reflector beneath the ridge, with these properties indicating a different origin, such as intraplate volcanism.

We acquired coincident wide-angle and multi-channel seismic reflection data along four profiles perpendicular to the Kyushu-Palau Ridge (KPR) between 15• N and 20• N on the Philippine Sea plate. The crustal thickness beneath the KPR, which is a remnant arc created in the Late Eocene, varies along the strike from 8 to approximately 20 km and is always thicker than the adjacent oceanic crust of the West Philippine Basin to the west and the Parece Vela Basin to the east. The thickest crust among the four profiles, which is primarily due to a thickening of the lower crust, is found where the KPR adjoins Oki-no-Tori-Shima Island. There is no clear evidence of the thick (>5 km) middle crustal layer with a P-wave velocity of 6.0-6.5 km/s that has been inferred beneath the conjugate rifted counterpart of the Izu-Ogasawara(Bonin)-Mariana Island-arc. Our results suggest that the crust of the KPR at 15-21• N represents a less mature island arc crust relative to that further north along the ridge where a mid-crustal layer of 6 km/s has been reported.

A survey of hydrothermal activity along the superfast-spreading (approximately 150 millimeters per year) East Pacific Rise shows that hydrothermal plumes overlay approximately 60 percent of the ridge crest between 13 degrees 50' and 18 degrees 40'S, a plume abundance nearly twice that known from any other rige portion of comparable length. Plumes were most abundant where the axial cross section is inflated and an axial magma chamber is present. Plumes with high ratios of volatile ((3)He, CH(4), and H(2)S) to nonvolatile (Mn and Fe) species marked where hydrothermal circulation has been perturbed by recent magmatic activity. The high proportion of volatile-rich plumes observed implies that such episodes are more frequent here than on slower spreading ridges.