Romanche Fracture Zone

Several reports of submarine disturbances of possible volcanic origin near the equator were noted by Neumann van Padang et al. (1967, CAVW). Ship captains have reported numerous submarine eruptions during the 18th and 19th centuries over a broad area in this part of the Atlantic, including descriptions of seaquakes, turbulent water, columns of smoke, floating pumice, submarine banks, or small ephemeral islands. These accounts were tentatively collectively assigned by the CAVW to a seamount along the Romanche Fracture Zone, although their locations span a broad area up to 400 km W of the assigned location. Floating "volcanic ash" was collected in 1836 from a site near the Mid-Atlantic Rift, well E of the seamount. The validity of these reports is not clear, although three of these events were considered by the CAVW to possibly represent submarine eruptions.