© University of Tasmania, Australia, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Back in 2012, the Pacific ocean experienced the
biggest volcanic eruption that the planet had seen in a hundred years. An enormous plume of volcanic material bubbled up out of the water with fantastic force, in a dramatic show that, sadly, nobody managed to catch on camera.
Eager to find out exactly what had happened deep below the sea,
scientists from the University of Tasmania in Australia have sent a pair of diving robots to examine the volcano (called Havre) and the surrounding area. The results are a lot of fun:
according to volcanologist Rebecca Carey who led the study, "what we found on the seafloor was almost entirely different from what we expected".
Whenever a scientist says that something is the opposite of what they were expecting, you know things are interesting. Throw in a
giant underwater volcano, and things get even better.
While the volcano's activity wasn't viewed from up close, thanks to its location at the bottom of the ocean, flotsam from the eruption was visible on satellite images that have been taken from space. From this, in 2015 (three years after the eruption), the scientists were able to pinpoint the location of the volcano, and were able to track how the area had surrounding changed from before things went boom.
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