Tropic Seamount is located at a depth of 970 metres (3,180 ft) and has a summit platform with an area of 120 square kilometres (46 sq mi).

Tropic Seamount is formed by volcanic rocks including basalt and trachyte and was probably an island at first; for reasons unknown it sank to its present-day depth.

del Carmen Piernavieja y Oramas of Las Palmas, Spain; this nomenclature reflected the idea that Carmenchu Peak was a separate summit.

[21] The isolated[22] seamount lies about halfway between the Canary Islands and Cape Verde, 480 kilometres (260 nmi) west of the Western Sahara[4] and on the upper continental rise.

[23] The seafloor around Tropic Seamount has an age of about 155[9]-150 million years and is covered by Quaternary silt, pelagic ooze and aeolian sediments;[4] there is no indication of other volcanic edifices in the neighbourhood or of a swell[24] although the so-called San Borondón crest connects it to Echo Bank.

An alternative theory posits that mantle convection is driven by the close distance between the seamounts and the African continent[32] and generated these volcanoes beginning in the Cretaceous.

[4] Non-hydrothermal chemical alteration has taken place and has formed carbonate, celadonite, chlorite, hematite, prehnite, quartz, smectite and rare zeolites.

[44] Thick ferromanganese deposits were recovered from the seamount in 1992 by the RV Sonne[10] and are found especially on the western flank[22] but also in the summit region, often over partly consolidated sediments.

[51] At Tropic Seamount they formed from water but were also influenced by material coming from Africa[52] and by global and northern hemisphere climate conditions.

[58] Coral growth appears to increase during glacial times and in the recent 1,000 years,[59] while decreasing during periods with low supply of Sahara dust.

[60] Common coral species encountered at Tropic Seamount are Caryophyllia sp., Desmophyllum dianthus, Javania caelleti, Madrepora oculata and Solenosmilia variabilis.

[54] The bivalve Rhinoclama teres[61] and the echinoids Echinocyamus scaber,[62] Palaeotropus josephinae,[63] Peripatagus cinctus[64] and Selenocidaris varispina have been found on this seamount,[65] as are xenophyophorea.

[17] [69] Flat topped summits can form through diverse mechanisms;[28] waves eroding[26] an island is the preferred theory in the case of Tropic Seamount[5][69] as there is little evidence of caldera-forming volcanic activity.