How fast can underwater volcanoes grow? One submarine volcano rivals even Vesuvius and Mt St Helen&r
How fast can underwater volcanoes grow? One submarine volcano rivals even Vesuvius and Mt St Helen’s in terms of growth. Researchers studying the Monowai volcano, which lies at the intersection of the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates at the Tonga-Kermadec subduction zone, recorded huge changes in height in just two weeks. The scientists, aboard the research ship the R/V Sonne, were first alerted to the rapid transformation when they noticed that the sea above the volcano had turned a yellowy-green and gas bubbles were rising to the surface. In the space of a fortnight, one part of the volcano’s summit had collapsed by as much as 18.8m while it had raised another area by 79.1m. In five days, it had added about 8.75 million cubic metres of rock to its summit - a volume equal to 3500 Olympic-size swimming pools. -TELMore info: http://news.discovery.com/earth/seamount-erupts-120514.htmlResearch paper: http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1473.html -- source link
#geology#volcano#collapse#avalanche#underwater#undersea#monowai#sonne#tonga#island#kermadec#subduction#pacific#atoll