Zealandia Bank

Zealandia Bank, also known as Farallon de Torres or Piedras de Torres in Spanish, or Papaungan in Chamorro, consists of two rocky pinnacles about apart, in the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. One reaches a height of approximately at low tide; the other does not normally broach the surface. They are located north-northeast of Sarigan, in between Sarigan and Guguan, but because of their small size, they are not listed in most maps. Zealandia Bank is one of a number of Volcanic Units within the Mariana Arc of Fire National Wildlife Refuge of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument.

File:Txu-pclmaps-oclc-22834566 j-14c.jpg

Map including Zealandia Bank (DMA, 1983)

Geology

Zealandia Bank is the exposed portion of the peak of an eroded underwater volcano. In 2004, a survey by NOAA discovered active fumaroles, including possible volcanic activity.

The volcano has erupted most recently rhyodacite but previously built up as an andesitic volcano that was dormant long enough for a carbonate platform to grow on its summit. Given that a large mid- to lower-crustal felsic magma body exists beneath the south-central Izu–Bonin–Mariana Arc extending about to the south of Zealandia Bank, it and the nearby volcanoes of West Zealandia and Northwest Zealandia, if not currently active, are most likely only dormant and so have been called the Zealandia Volcanic Complex. The Zealandia Bank is the current magmatic front and the other two volcanoes being about west are in a rear arc.

Name

Zealandia Bank was named in 1858 after the British barque Zealandia. The area is part of the United States Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

External links

• Zealandia Bank. Pascal Horst Lehne and Christoph Gäbler: Über die Marianen. Lehne-Verlag, Wohldorf in Germany 1972.
• Sharks at Zealandia Bank
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