More than 19,000 volcanoes have been discovered under the sea
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A new study has revealed over 19,000 previously unknown undersea volcanoes, or seamounts, in the world's oceans. The discovery was made using high-resolution radar data, which can detect subtle signs of seawater mounding above a hidden seamount, tugged by its gravity. Most of these undersea volcanoes remain uncharted by sonar, and with only one-quarter of the sea floor mapped, it is impossible to know how many exist.
Previously, only a quarter of the ocean floor had been mapped by sonar, making it impossible to know how many seamounts actually exist. However, high-resolution radar data, including that from the European Space Agency's CryoSat-2 and SARAL from the Indian and French space agencies, have now been used to locate seamounts 1,100 meters tall.
According to marine geophysicist David Sandwell, who helped lead the research, the findings are "mind-boggling." The seamounts pose navigational hazards to submarines and ships, but they also harbor rare-earth minerals, making them commercial targets for deep-sea miners. In addition, they provide crucial oases for marine life and play a significant role in controlling large-scale ocean flows responsible for sequestering vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide.
Do the volcanoes have any significance?
Seamounts are crucial oases for marine life, and their steep slopes serve as homes for corals and other marine organisms. The new maps could strengthen the argument that seamounts act as stepping stones for life to hopscotch through the oceans. Moreover, they hold clues to plate tectonics and magmatism and are pot-stirrers that help control the large-scale ocean flows responsible for sequestering vast amounts of heat and carbon dioxide.
The new seamount catalog, published in Earth and Space Science, is a significant step forward, according to Larry Mayer, director of the University of New Hampshire's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping. The information can aid in studies of ecology, plate tectonics, and ocean mixing. John Lowell, chief hydrographer of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which runs the U.S. military's satellite mapping efforts, says that a better understanding of the shape of the sea floor will help prepare for climate change.
This new discovery highlights the vastness of the ocean and the mysteries that lie beneath the surface. The ocean is an integral part of our planet, and research such as this is essential to understand its complexities fully.
Previously, an underwater volcano was discovered in countries which prompted thoughts of a tsunami.
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