Guyots

Guyots

A guyot is a seamount with a flat top. Think of an underwater mountain that has been levelled off at its summit, like a table rising from the ocean floor. The flat top is the defining feature — it is what separates a guyot from an ordinary seamount, which typically has a pointed or peaked summit.

The flat top is not a random accident of nature. Guyots show clear evidence of gradual subsidence — that is, they slowly sank over time. As the mountain subsided, its top was worn down by wave action and erosion near the ocean surface, eventually becoming flattened. Through these stages, what was once a peaked mountain became a flat-topped, submerged feature. So a guyot is, in essence, a seamount that has undergone this process of erosion and sinking to end up as a flat-topped mountain now lying beneath the sea. …