The world's largest volcano lies at the bottom of the Pacific - The País.com (Spain)

A team of geologists

claims to have discovered the world’s largest volcano in the Pacific Ocean floor. The Tamu Massif, 310,000 square kilometers in size could compete with other Solar System, according to a stadium published in Nature Geoscience

The volcano is part of Shatsky, a plateau deep in the floor of the Pacific located about 1,600 kilometers east of Japan, added the authors of the work, which is signed by American Willam W. Sager et al.

The volcano consists of a single, huge rounded dome shaped shield, composed of hardened lava from an eruption for about 144 million years. It covers about 310,000 square kilometers (an area equivalent to the UK and Ireland) and reaches up to 3.5 kilometers below the sea level. “Compete with Olympus Mons on Mars, the largest volcano in the Solar System”, will ensure researchers. And added: “Although Mount Olympus seem to be giant, as it has more than 20 miles high, its volume is 25 percent larger. Monte Olimpo also has shallow roots while Tamu extends about 30 km in the crust. “

Researchers had believed until now that the Tamu Massif was a vast system of several volcanoes, the kind that exists in a dozen locations across the globe.

The realization that it was a volcano only truly gigantic size only came to light when the team, led by Sager, University of Texas A & M, A review. Data were collected rock samples taken from a drilling project on the ocean floor, and a map of the seabed scanners provided by high depth seismic aboard a research vessel.

Megaformaciones

throughout the Solar System

Taken together, the results suggest that megavolcanes found elsewhere in the solar system have cousins ??on Earth, says the document. “The type of terrestrial volcanoes is poorly understood as these monsters have found a better place to hide: under the sea”, argues the article.

In an email exchange with AFP, Sager said it seemed unlikely that the MacizoTamu were active. “The bottom line is that we think Tamu was formed in a short time (geologically speaking) one to several million years and has remained since become extinct,” he said.

“An interesting point is that there were plenty of oceanic plateaus erupted during the Cretaceous period (145-65 million years ago), but have not been seen since. A scientists would like to know why “.

Other leviathans volcanic might be lurking among the dozen large oceanic plateaus around the world, thought the principal investigator.

“We have no data for exploring them and know their structure, but would not be surprised to discover that there are more like Tamu around. Indeed, the Earth’s oceanic plateau greater Ontong Java, near Ecuador in the Pacific, east of Solomon Islands. which is much larger than Tamu.’s the size of France. “

The name comes from Texas A & M University, where Sager taught for 29 years before moving to the University of Houston this year, he said.