2025-2026 Lecturer: Tony Watts

Tony Watts

University of Oxford

Biography

Anthony B. Watts (Tony) is Emeritus Professor of Marine Geology and Geophysics in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Oxford. He received his BSc. in Geology and Physics from University College, London and his Ph.D in Marine Geophysics from the University of Durham. After graduating, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Canada and then joined the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University, New York, USA. Tony has participated in some 26 cruises of research ships to each of the world’s ocean basins and their margins and has been involved in all aspects of the acquisition, reduction, and interpretation of marine geological and geophysical data. He has advised some 39 Ph.D students, mentored 16 postdoctoral fellows and published a book, now in its 2nd edition, entitled “Isostasy and Flexure of the Lithosphere” and 258 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals. His work has been recognized by the award of the Maurice Ewing Medal of the US Navy and American Geophysical Union (AGU), the Arthur Holmes Medal of the European Geophysical Union (EGU), the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London, the Rosenstiel Award in Oceanographic Sciences of the University of Miami and the George P. Woollard Award of the Geological Society of America (GSA), honorary membership of the EGU, membership of Academia Europea, and Fellowship of the AGU, GSA and The Royal Society. His current work is focused on research on plate flexure and mantle rheology along the Hawaiian-Emperor and Louisville Ridge seamount chains and on public outreach through lectures and podcasts on seamounts, science and society. 


Abstract: Mountains in the Sea

One of the mysteries of the sea are the large number of seamounts that rise on the seabed and, in a few cases, break surface to form oceanic islands. Volcanic in origin, seamounts are widely scattered throughout the world’s ocean basins, especially in the Pacific. Recent estimates suggest that there maybe as many as 200,000 seamounts with heights that range from 0.1 to 6.7 km above the surrounding seafloor. Seamounts are generally circular in shape, have pointed, star-shaped, curved, or flat tops, and are often capped by a coral reef. They are of geological interest because they record the motions and the mechanics of Earth’s tectonic plates and the magmatic ‘pulse’ of its deep interior. They are also significant as ocean ‘stirring rods’, biodiversity ‘hotspots’, and hazards for earthquakes and tsunamis, submarine landslides, and navigation. Statistical studies suggest that there are as many as 24,000 seamounts higher than 1 km still to be discovered. The charting of these seamounts and the determination of their morphology, structure, and evolution is one of the many exciting challenges facing marine geoscientists in the future.