Colosseum Guyot

It is a submerged, flat-topped seamount, known as a guyot, located in the Pacific Ocean. Like other guyots, it is an ancient volcanic structure with a distinctive table-like summit.

The name reportedly evokes the amphitheater-like shape of the seamount, echoing Rome's famous Colosseum. Undersea features are often named for the distinctive forms revealed by sonar mapping.

Guyots form when a volcanic island's summit is worn flat by wave action at sea level and the seafloor later subsides, carrying the plateau into deep water. The term was coined by geologist Harry Hess and honors the Swiss-American geographer Arnold Henry Guyot.

Seamounts provide habitat for deep-sea communities, including corals and sponges, making them hotspots of marine life. Pacific guyots are also studied for their ferromanganese crusts, which contain metals such as cobalt.