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Bathymetric relief map of Resolution Guyot

Resolution Guyot, formerly known as Huevo, is a guyot (tablemount) in the underwater Mid-Pacific Mountains. It is a circular flat mountain, rising 500 metres (1,600 ft) above the seafloor to a depth of about 1,320 metres (4,330 ft), with a summit platform 35 kilometres (22 mi) wide. The Mid-Pacific Mountains lie west of Hawaii and northeast of the Marshall Islands, but at the time of its formation the guyot was located in the Southern Hemisphere, by a hotspot in today's French Polynesia. Plate tectonics shifted it to its present-day location, and the Easter, Marquesas, Pitcairn and Society hotspots may have been involved in the formation of Resolution Guyot. Volcanic activity has been dated to have occurred 107 to 129 million years ago and formed a volcanic island that was subsequently flattened by erosion. The platform emerged above sea level at one point before eventually drowning for reasons still unknown, with thermal subsidence lowering it further to its present depth. (Full article...)

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On this day

February 2: Candlemas (Western Christianity); Groundhog Day in Canada and the United States

Vineyard in Stellenbosch, South Africa

506 – Alaric II, King of the Visigoths, promulgated a collection of Roman law known as the Breviary of Alaric.
1659 – Jan van Riebeeck, the founder of Cape Town, produced the first bottle of South African wine (vineyard pictured).
1913 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal, the world's largest train station by number of platforms, opened immediately after midnight.
1942 – The first act of the Norwegian resistance movement took place with the bombing of Oslo East Station by the Osvald Group to protest the inauguration of Vidkun Quisling.
2009 – Omid, Iran's first domestically made satellite, was successfully launched from Semnan Space Center.

Alix Le Clerc (b. 1576)
José Guadalupe Posada (b. 1852)
Alfred Delp (d. 1945)

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Today's featured picture

Wesley Bell is an American attorney and formerly a member of the city council of Ferguson, Missouri. He is currently the prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Missouri, defeating the long-time incumbent Bob McCulloch in the 2018 Democratic primary election for that position. Bell became the first black county prosecuting attorney in the county's history when he took office in January 2019.

Photograph credit: Jamelle Bouie; edited by Bammesk

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