Louisville hotspot

The Louisville hotspot is believed to lie close to the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge, although its exact present location is uncertain.

During the Late Oligocene, the magma source decreased to a small fraction of that in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, such that none of the volcanoes has emerged above sea level in the past 11 million years.

The modelled locations of the plateau and hotspot at the time do not coincide under one recent plate reconstruction, arguing against this, although other factors mean their linkage may still be possible.

[6] One other factor is compositional studies which would suggest that only part of the Ontong Java Plateau that separated quite early is related to the Louisville hotspot.

[7] The compositional studies also define that the hot spot magma produces a distinct alkali basalt compared to the eruptives from the Hawaii hotspot.

The Louisville hotspot, marked 23 on this map, is the southernmost one in the Pacific Ocean.
The Louisville Ridge containing the seamount chain stretches diagonally across this bathymetric map of the southwest Pacific Ocean.