Beverly Krull, age I3,, of Lancaster Pa,, for her question:
How are gyyots formed?
Science makes discoveries every day, and last year's information is often out of date, when the IGY ended, no one knew how guyots were formed. But recently more facts were published. The mystery of the strange underwater mountains may just may be solved. In science, even last month's information is often out of date. The floor of the ocean has its hills and rocky ranges its valleys and plunging Canyons. It has lone mountains called seamounts. Some are crowned with steep Pinnacles. The seamounts called guyots have flat tops like the mesas of our western deserts. The tops of some are a mile or more below the surface. Science is not certain how the lone seamounts were formed. But last week we learned about the minerals from which they are made. Some minerals are formed by fire, others by water. A rocky mineral may be changed by heat, pressure or weathering. The minerals dredged up from the floor of the sea can tell the experts a great deal About the history of the mysterious ups and downs on the floor of the ocean.
Most of the samples were basalts,, and basalts are igneous or fire formed rocks. This suggests volcanic activity. In the pasty massive lava flows must have erupted from the floor of the ocean. Many of the samples contain volcanic glassy and some contain fragments of opal, Guyots and other seamounts may just may be the remains of underwater volcanoes.
The flat top of the guyot is still somewhat of a mystery. Most likely it once Had a pinnacle. If it poked above the watery the pounding waves could have shorn off its spire. Hut there are no waves a mile below the surface. Maybe the explanation lies in the past,
The oceanographers look back and suggest that a guyot may once have been an island mountain. Perhaps the sea level was lower or, more likely, the ocean floor higher. In any case, the peak could have been flattened in the remote past by surface waves. Conditions may have changed, swamping the odd shaped guyot under deeper and still deeper water.
The mineral samples of volcanic rock suggest that they have been underwater for a long time. They are pitted and worn, perhaps by the action of sea water. Many are encrusted with rusts from such metals as iron and manganese. Some have grooves and tunnels stuffed with clay which most likely seeped in from the muddy ocean floor.