A groundbreaking study conducted by a team of experts has successfully mapped the ocean floor more comprehensively than ever before, uncovering a staggering 20,000 previously unknown submarine volcanoes. This discovery doubles the known number of volcanic structures that tower thousands of meters beneath the Earth's surface. The majority of these underwater formations have an altitude of no more than 2,500 meters and are typically situated close to mid-ocean ridges where magma pressures cause the crust to become thin and fractured.
Despite these findings, the exact number of submarine volcanoes remains uncertain, as only 20 percent of the ocean floor has been mapped using sonar technology. To overcome this limitation, researchers from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, Chungnam National University in South Korea, and the University of Hawaii employed radar data for global ocean coverage and analyzed vertical gravity gradient (VGG) measurements derived from satellite altimeter readings.
Utilizing the latest VGG grid, the scientists updated the global submarine survey catalog, as they explained in their Earth and Space Science article. They identified a remarkable 19,325 new underwater formations, increasing the previous catalog's total from 24,643 to 43,454. The tallest known underwater mountain remains Mauna Kea, part of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain, standing at 5,761 meters below sea level and reaching a total height of 9,330 meters – even taller than Mount Everest
Post a Comment