(ORDO NEWS) — Experts have received official confirmation that a completely new and fairly high underwater volcano has formed on Earth. The first seismic activity was recorded at the end of spring 2018. This volcano reaches a height of 820 meters.
This is reported by Science Alert.
The giant volcano is located off the east coast of Mayotte Island. It is even taller than Krakatoa, which is 813 meters high. It is worth noting that the largest volcano on the planet is located on the border of Argentina and Chile. It rises to 6,893 meters and arose after a very strong earthquake hit the area in 2018.
Seismic activity occurred on May 10, and after a couple of days tremors occurred, the strength of which reached 5.8 points. Experts immediately realized that the reason was a fairly large volcanic event. At the same time, the epicenter is located at a distance of 50 kilometers from the island. A group of scientists was immediately sent there, who found a mountain under water. Previously, she was not in this place.
Geophysicist Nathalie Feye and her colleagues used a special multi-beam sonar, with the help of which it turned out to make a map of the seabed. The area of the site was 8600 square kilometers. At a depth of 3.5 kilometers, the experts additionally placed seismometers.
In 2019, more than 17 thousand underwater earthquakes were recorded. The specialists used the obtained data in order to understand how exactly the new volcano was formed. Feye said that the formation process began directly from a magma reservoir located at a great depth in the planet’s asthenosphere. Tectonic processes, in turn, led to the fact that the lithosphere was damaged and magma broke through the earth’s crust, poured out and caused the appearance of a giant underwater volcano.
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