Bollons SeamountorBollons Tablemount is a seamount just east of the international date line, a few hundred miles off the coast of New Zealand.[1] It represents a continental fragment that separated from Zealandia as a result of rifting.[2] The seamount was involved in a 2002 survey and collection project defined to find the edge of New Zealand's continental shelf.[3] The Bollons Seamount has been shown to be a site of extensive Cretaceous-era rifting in the area towards the southern Chatham Rise between 83.7 and 78.5 MYA.[4]
Magnetic anomalies from the seamount indicate that it was the site of highly irregular activity, with differences in the rifting there being up to 100 km (62 mi). A 50 km (31 mi) gap near the seamount, known as the Ballons gap, is interpreted as being due to excess volcanism from the seafloor spreading process. A ridge just south of the seamount, the Antipodes Fracture Zone, is interpreted as having been built by a combination of compression and volcanic activity associated with the triple-junction Bellingshausen-Marie Byrd Land plate boundary nearby.[4]
