Orca Seamount

Orca Seamount
Location of Orca Seamount
Bathemetric mapping of the seamount, mapped with the swath sonar system of RV Polarstern during cruise ANT-XI/3.
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.^[1]

The seamount was first named by Professor O. González-Ferrán of Chile in 1987, after the orca (killer whale) often sighted in these waters.^[2][3] It was mapped and studied by the ship RV Polarstern during an Antarctic cruise (number ANT-XI/3) in 2005.^[4] 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).^[5]

References

1. Hatzky, Jörn (2005): The Orca Seamount Region, Antarctica (Sect. 5.5.2). In: Peter C. Wille (ed.), Sound Images of the Ocean in Research and Monitoring, Springer-Verlag Berlin.
2. "Name Details – Orca Seamount". Catalogue of Antarctic Names. Australian Antarctic Data Centre. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
3. "GEBCO Gazetteer of Geographic Names of Undersea Features" (PDF). GEBCO Sub-Committee on Undersea Feature Names (SCUFN). January 2010. p. 332. Retrieved 2010-03-29.
4. Vulcano bransfield-strait hg.png
5. "Data Query". Geographic Names Information System. USGS. Retrieved 2009-05-12.