Video: Furious Eruption of Deepest Known Undersea Volcano

The West Mata volcano erupted nearly 4,000 feet underwater in the Pacific Ocean

By Jeremy Hsu Posted 12.18.2009 at 1:28 pm 13 Comments

Underwater Fury Boom, blurp, blop! NSF/NOAA

This is how island chains are born. Scientists spotted the deepest erupting volcano almost 4,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean's surface, and recorded the underwater fury by using the remotely operated submarine Jason.

The West Mata Volcano sits in an ocean area between Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa, and spews out boninite lavas that are among the hottest recorded on Earth in modern times. Water from the volcano has proven as acidic as battery acid or human stomach acid, but that has not stopped shrimp from thriving near the volcanic vents.

This eruption, first spotted in May, has allowed scientists to see molten lava flow across the seafloor for the first time. Vivid video imagery, courtesy of the National Science Foundation and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, shows molten lava bubbles three feet across bursting, as well as the start of lava flows exploding across the deep-ocean floor.

Scientists say that about 80 percent of all eruptions on Earth take place underwater. So all that sound and fury hardly signifies nothing -- it's just the beginning of understanding a deep sea world as alien as anything NASA might discover.

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13 Comments

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chaosdivine

12/19/09 at 2:34 am

There's a rather GLARING typo for this article on the animated image switcher on the home page...it says "4000 miles" below the sea not the realistic "4000 feet". Besides that...cool stuff! I would give anything to see lava flow from the earth no matter how far it is I have to travel to see it. It's one of my "life goals" before I die. Better start collecting bottles to afford such a trip...LOL!

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Jeremy Hsu

12/19/09 at 10:22 am

@chaosdivine Thanks for pointing out the typo, we've fixed it now. That was getting into Jules Verne territory!

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DanFF

12/19/09 at 5:04 pm

I believe that "leagues" referred to distance traveled underwater, and depth was measured in fathoms. So, no - you were way past Verne territory. ;-)

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jimcar28

12/19/09 at 6:17 pm

Unless, of course, he was referencing Journey to the Center of the Earth instead of Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

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AKalicia09

12/26/09 at 11:10 am

That is pretty amazing how strong the submersibles are to stand up to such high pressures as well as temperatures. I know that the magma cools more quickly underwater than on land but it's still over 1000 F!

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taking

12/29/09 at 6:04 pm

Well is there any plants or animals next to the volcano living of its heat for us to study?

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DMosley

03/03/10 at 11:30 pm

Shrimp living in water as acidic as battery acid? Amazing how life above or below the sea can adapt to such extreme environments. It would be nice if we could too. Then maybe I could stand the heat in Arizona :)

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arabic

03/14/10 at 4:32 am

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arabic

03/14/10 at 4:34 am

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steventayler

03/19/10 at 4:32 pm

That is pretty amazing how strong the submersibles are to stand up to such high pressures as well as temperatures.
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lindasimon

03/22/10 at 8:57 am

That is pretty amazing how strong the submersibles are to stand up to such high pressures as well as temperatures.

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lindasimon

03/22/10 at 8:57 am

That is pretty amazing how strong the submersibles are to stand up to such high pressures as well as temperatures.
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