Slashdot Mirror
New Giant Volcano Below Sea Is Largest In the World
An anonymous reader writes "If you're a fan of gigantic volcanoes you'll be happy to know that the biggest volcano on Earth, and one of the biggest in the solar system, has just been discovered under the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles east of Japan. From the article: 'Called Tamu Massif, the giant shield volcano had been thought to be a composite of smaller structures, but now scientists say they must rethink long-held beliefs about marine geology. "This finding goes against what we thought, because we found that it's one huge volcano," said William Sager, a geology professor at the University of Houston in Texas. Sager is lead author in a study about the find that was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience. "It is in the same league as Olympus Mons on Mars, which had been considered to be the largest volcano in the solar system," Sager told National Geographic.'"
Yep, there is bunch of stuff that is hiding under water in the sea that we haven't discovered yet.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Sorry if this may seem ignorant, but how can we be sure it might be the biggest volcano in the solar system if we only just discovered this one on *our* planet?
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
What's with the 10 million cookie requests? Never visiting the fucking site again.
RTFA,
It has been dead for 145 million years
Where's the kaboom?
How? Olympus Mons is 22km high. Volcano in question is barely 4km tall.
They thought is was a composite of many smaller volcanoes and have discovered it's not.
Like discovering that the Himalaya is a single mountain that's been cut in several pointy tops by... monks, or something.
I recommend Sudafed
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Previously, it was thought to be a composite of many smaller volcanoes. Now, it is thought to be one volcano.
So, any day now
They wrote about this in Sanctuary, so now we need to be afraid, very afraid :-)
No, it isn't a fundamental problem with science; they changed what they thought when new evidence to the contrary came to light. That's exactly how science is supposed to work.
Blank until
Zombie Volcanoes!
rewriting history since 2109
What's the largest married volcano?
rewriting history since 2109
And this is a fundamental problem with religious fundamentalists... they can't handle the fact that scientists can change their minds when fresh evidence emerges.
Seaquest ftw...
Great show, until they went the Alien route, completely killed it.. (like most shows that attempt it)...
But in reality, i'd love to see people start moving under the ocean to both live and work, i think it would be awesome.
'...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
hah. if i read it carefully, it actually makes much more sense ;)
Rich
I for one welcome our new giant monsters overlords.
Blast! You beat me to posting this :)
"Klaatu, verada, necktie!" -Ash
This volcano is extinct and it is not producing any lava today or magma for that matter. So this is now just an volcano that nature is weathering down slowly.
If this really is the largest volcano in the world by surface area, then why didn't it break the surface like the Hawaiian volcanoes have managed? That sounds to me like flood basalt activity (which for some reason isn't treated quite like normal volcanic eruptions, perhaps due to the relative lack of historical precedent). We have bigger examples of flood basalts on Earth already (by surface area and probably by volume), the Deccan Traps of central India and Siberian Traps (which cover a third of Siberia) as well as similar examples on the Moon.
Further, while I don't know about any lunar examples that might be near point-sourced, both the Earth-side examples I mention above have most lava in the system coming from a common source, some sort of series of dikes or cracks in a relatively small area compared to the total eruption's surface area. At this point, all we know is that the Tamu Massif has a common source which could be a similar structure to these flood basalts (which may in turn be obscured by a somewhat more normal volcanic eruption of the same system covering the initial eruption zone).
A similar thing seems to be true of the duration of eruptions. Neither of the above flood basalts appears to have erupted for more than a few million years, durations that are comparable to the Tamu Massif's alleged duration of eruptions.
So I guess for me, the question is why is Tamu Massif considered a single volcano, but not the Deccan Traps or the Siberian Traps?
4: Large force of expandable henchmen. Advert up in the Evening Post.
Make sure you put the advert in the restaurant section.
And cue up a zillion new disaster movies and documentaries about how this "new" super volcano could destroy the planet. I mean that is the only few things these channels offer these days, disaster movies and docs about the potential for disasters, and shows about logging.
Someone needs to keep Dean Cain employed!
Synopsis: Dean Cain, a retired US geologist is standing on his paddleboard off the coast of Hawaii when a freak wave washes over him and crashes ashore. Scratching his head and thinking that something is not right, he, and some B list bimbo, begins an epic shirtless journey and battle to save the planet by building the world's largest laser guided cork to plug a massive Pacific volcano that nobody knew about. Now if only he could get past the mega huge prehistoric sharks that the volcano keeps erupting at him!!!
© 2014 Asylum Pictures, the official movie studio of Syfy. "Making Movies for only $3.50/min" TM
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
That's exactly how science is supposed to work.
The master said it best:
Yeah, right.
We will need a very large Sudafed capsule to calm down the Deep One.
Just because you are paranoid does not mean that no-one is out to get you.
We need to explore and discover our own planet first. There is in fact much greater opportunity to have viable undersea colonies on Earth than building colonies on Mars.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
You beat me to it. ;)
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Sorry Mr Anonymous internet guy, it appears your data is corrupt, not theirs.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Quick, get your proposal into SyFy now, before someone else steals it!
I don't see things in black and white; I see the gray. Heck, I actually see in color, which makes things more difficult
Sorry, no mod points, just laughter and applause. :)
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
My momma is not now, nor has she ever been, married.
rewriting history since 2109
I tried, they only wanted wrassling volcanoes.
rewriting history since 2109
That's because they deal in dogma and sell certainty. Can't be a confidence trickster without plenty of confidence.