The Emperor Seamounts are a north-northwest–striking chain (~2500 km long) of undersea volcanoes that are widely thought to record the movement of the Pacific plate relative to the Hawaiian hotspot during the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary (Fig. F1); seamount ages increase from south to north. We have collected and processed high-resolution single-channel seismic data from surveys conducted by the JOIDES Resolution over Detroit Seamount (Fig. F2), Nintoku Seamount (Fig. F3), and Koko Seamount (Fig. F4) and processed U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) data collected over Detroit Seamount.
This report documents the acquisition and processing of these data and serves as a reference to those wishing to download and inspect the profiles in detail. We partitioned the data discussion into three sections, one for each seamount. Within each section, we discuss the processing details unique to the survey, display a sample of the data, and provide location information to orient drill holes and line crossings relative to the seismic profiles. Kerr et al. (2005) provide a separate geological interpretation of seismic data over Detroit Seamount and discuss the deposition of the Meiji Drift during Oligocene to Miocene time.