Seamounts are mountains that rise from the seafloor. The technical geological definition of a seamount is a steep-sided feature with greater than 1000 m of relief compared to the surrounding sea bottom (Figure 1) (reviewed in Kitchingman and Lai, 2004). Seamounts go by a variety of names, including tablemounts, guyots, and banks, depending on their specific morphology. Although they are not considered seamounts, oceanic islands and atolls are essentially seamounts that breach the sea surface. At least 50,000 seamounts are distributed throughout the world’s ocean (reviewed in Kitchingman and Lai, 2004), with more than half of these occurring in international waters.

Baco, A.R. 2007. Exploration for deep-sea corals on North Pacific seamounts and islands. Oceanography 20(4):108–117, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2007.11.

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