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.'"

Comments

In the solar system?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:In the solar system?

[Anonymous Coward]

It didn't say it was the biggest volcano in the solar system, but one of the biggest. The biggest known one is Alba Mons on Mars, which is a staggering 5.7 million square kilometres in size. Olympus Mons, also on Mars, is in the range of 300,000 square kilometres, so is the Tamu Massif on Earth, so these two volcanoes compete for the #2 spot. Only other places besides Earth and Mars that have or ever had active volcanoes are Venus and Io. Venus's largest (Maat Mons) is less than half the size of Olympus Mons/Tamu Massif, and Io's largest (Inachus Tholus) is only a tenth that.

Re:In the solar system?

[nedlohs]

You can safely assume a "that we know of" clause on every scientific statement ever made. Scientists don't bother actually stating it because it would get rather repetitive and unreadable, plus it's not the only such assumed qualification and including them all would make science papers and books about 20x longer.

And of course the claim you state was never made anyway since we already know of bigger volcanoes. Which is an example of these implied qualifications: the Mars volcanoes are not active, to the best of our knowledge they are volcanoes - the geology matches what we expect volcanoes to be and so on. However, a volcano by definition requires a magma chamber and we since they aren't active we can't be 100% sure. There is no other mainstream explanation and they fit volcanoes like a glove so no qualifications would usually actually be stated, the electric universe folk think they are scars from electrical discharges as an example of a completely different interpretation.

Re:In the solar system?

[mrsquid0]

> 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?

This is not an ignorant question at all. We are not sure if it is the largest volcano in the Solar System, we just know that it is the largest that we know of on Earth, and one of the largest that we know of in the Solar System. We will not be sure until we have completely explored the entire ocean floor, under the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps, and the surfaces of every rocky planet and moon in the Solar System. We need to get busy.

Re:In the solar system?

[camperdave]

We will not be sure until we have completely explored ... the surfaces of every rocky planet and moon in the Solar System.

Is there a particular reason that you are excluding the gas giants?

Re:In the solar system?

[AlecC]

The gas giants are believed not to have an actual surface, but rather a steadily increasing density from what we could call gas to what we would call solid. It is difficult to see how a volcano, which has a defined surface, could exist. If as surface does, contrary to belief, exist, we cannot see it and therefore can say nothing about its structure - including volcanoes.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

[Anonymous Coward]

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

WTF National Geographic??!!

[torsmo]

What's with the 10 million cookie requests? Never visiting the fucking site again.

Same league as Olympus Mons?

[dvh.tosomja]

How? Olympus Mons is 22km high. Volcano in question is barely 4km tall.

Re:Same league as Olympus Mons?

[dido]

They're compared in terms of surface area. Both Olympus Mons and the Tamu Massif occupy an area approximately 300,000 square kilometres.

Re:so what did they think actually ?

[Thanshin]

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.

Re: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fh

[mrbester]

I recommend Sudafed

Re:Yep

[sFurbo]

There is, but this is not a case of that: The massif was known, the new part is that it is not multiple volcanoes, but one.

Re:"This finding goes against what we thought"

[Farmer Tim]

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.

Re:Yep

[Daniel Dvorkin]

They didn't "redefine" it, they studied it until they understood it better. If you go to the doctor, are you upset because you get a diagnosis of a specific bacterial infection and a prescription for antibiotics instead of a diagnosis of "fever" and a bleeding to restore the balance of your bodily humors?

Re:2nd Post ?

[JustOK]

Zombie Volcanoes!

Re:It's not 'new'

[JustOK]

What's the largest married volcano?

Re:"This finding goes against what we thought"

[jrumney]

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.

So, Pacific Rim was right?

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one welcome our new giant monsters overlords.

Extinct volcano

[jonfr]

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.

Re:"This finding goes against what we thought"

[Safety Cap]

That's exactly how science is supposed to work.

The master said it best:

The young specialist in English Lit, having quoted me, went on to lecture me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern "knowledge" is that it is wrong.

My answer to him was, "John, when people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together."
— Issac Asimov, The relativity of wrong

Re:2nd Post ?

[JustOK]

I tried, they only wanted wrassling volcanoes.