How strongly do plumes influence Pacific seamount distribution?

Seamounts are submarine volcanoes postulated to be formed either from magma that rose from the deep mantle via hot plumes or from the lithosphere and asthenosphere via diffuse partial melting. The distribution of seamounts is thus a direct manifestation of tectonic-magmatic activity in Earth's interior. We apply a large-scale Gaussian Process regression to recover seamount topography from under the sedimentary layer in order to obtain an accurate map of the distribution of volcanism in the Pacific plate. Our results show a significant increase in estimated seamount volume above the basaltic basement compared to the volume above the sedimentary layer (i.e. the seafloor). This indicates that the sediment cover can lead to significant underestimation of volcanic volume if not accounted for. After correction for the sedimentary coverage, the total erupted volume produced by hotspots is estimated to make up 18% of the total Pacific intraplate volcanism. This indicates that, at most, hotspot volcanism makes a minor contribution to intraplate volcanism on the Pacific plate. Regarding the distribution of the seamounts, neither hotspot seamounts nor those along the Large Low-Shear-Velocity Province margins are significantly different from the majority that are formed by diffuse volcanism originating in the shallow mantle. We thus conclude that, statistically, plumes exert only minor control on the number and distribution of intraplate seamounts in the Pacific plate.