Active volcanoes on land have long been counted and carefully mapped, and under the ocean, scientists are still waiting for unexpected surprises - even in our time, when satellites are able to fix even the smallest objects on Earth, it is constantly becoming known about new underwater peaks that can erupting clouds of gas and causing earthquakes and tsunamis. We have highlighted the 3 most active underwater volcanoes that present unpleasant surprises.
It is believed that there are a lot of underwater volcanoes, so far unknown to mankind, in the oceans. A volcano can be discovered if it "wakes up", that is, it begins to forcefully push gas, steam, and lava out of the water. If the volcano is high enough and approaches the surface of the water, then a huge black cloud of smoke appears above it during the eruption.
If there is about 2 km between the volcano and the upper sea level, then the eruption can be noticed only due to tremors that someone accidentally records.
An underwater constantly erupting volcano can eventually rise to the surface of the ocean and become a new island. So, for example, the island of Reunion was formed.
Cavio Barat
Most of the underwater volcanoes are concentrated in the three oceans, where the crustal faults pass - in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific. In 2010, off the coast of Indonesia, located at the junction of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, a huge volcano with a height of 3.8 km was found, which is not included in the ocean ridges, but stands apart. The volcano was named Cavio Barat.
Scientists have speculated that there is some kind of mountain at this place in 2004. Six years later, a sea expedition was sent to the location of the alleged volcano. She managed to find out the following:
- the activity of the volcano caused the appearance of hot springs on its summit, in the waters of which life boils;
- the distance from the ocean surface to the volcano's vent is about 2 km, so the researchers were amazed by the presence of living organisms at such a depth, which usually prefer to settle in the upper layers of the ocean;
- hot springs have contributed to significant deposits of sulfur, where bacteria have settled, which serve as food for other organisms.
Le Havre
In 2012, the underwater volcano Le Havre, lost in the space between New Zealand and Samoa in the Pacific Ocean, shocked scientists around the world with its eruption, which was recognized as the most powerful ever to study the activity of underwater volcanoes on the planet.
As a result of the eruption, temporary islands were formed on the water surface, consisting of light volcanic pumice, saturated with silica. The total area of these light land areas was about 400 square meters. km. Some pieces of pumice reached 1.5 m in diameter.
Due to the release of pumice on the ocean surface, the researchers decided that the eruption of the Le Havre volcano could be called explosive. Such examples in the history of observation of underwater volcanoes are few in number, so scientists still do not understand what happened at a depth of 650 m.
2 research vehicles were lowered to the place of the eruption, which collected samples of the substance that got into the water after the eruption of the volcano, and measured the seamount. It turned out that the diameter of the volcano is more than 4.5 km.
Manovai chain
In the vicinity of the Tonga archipelago, a volcano was discovered a dozen years ago, which was named pulsating. It is part of the Manovai underwater mountain range and is a unique sight: it constantly changes its height, and at a high speed - about 10 cm per week.
The Manovai chain, mapped in 1944, was examined several times by scientists who noted the strange behavior of one of the local volcanoes. Its height either increased by tens of centimeters or decreased. The volcano seemed to be breathing or throbbing.
The change in height of the volcano from the Manovai Ridge occurs 100 times faster than that of other known underwater volcanoes. He even managed to create a new vent in a month where scientists had previously recorded an ordinary break in the rock.
So far, no one is able to explain such a behavior of the volcano. One thing is known: the volcano is active, however, its eruptions occur only once a year and last no longer than 14 days.
