Mapping
The seamount was initially mapped by the GLORIA program of the USGS, and in far more detail in 2001 by leg 197 of the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP). 2001 marked a two-month excursion aboard the research vessel JOIDES Resolution to collect samples of lava flows from four submerged volcanoes, among them Detroit Seamount, which was drilled twice. The expedition was funded by the Ocean Drilling Program, an international research effort designed to study the world's seafloors, and the drill sites were numbers 1203 through 1206. The project drilled Detroit, Nintoku, and Koko seamounts, all in the far northwest of the chain. Detroit Seamount was drilled twice (numbered 1203 and 1204), on the summit and on one its secondary cones; care was taken to put the locations away from major fault lines or other geological features that would otherwise invalidate or bias the results.
In 2005 it underwent a detailed geological analysis by scientists from Stanford University.
Read more about this topic: Detroit Seamount