Move Over Toba and Yellowstone- World's Biggest Volcano Discovered

reply to post by TrueAmerican

Until a magma chamber is imaged below Tamu, that's not necessarily true.

How does one image a magma chamber? Has it been done for Mauna Loa? Yellowstone?
I wonder how big the magma chamber below Olympus Mons may have been.

reply to post by Phage


Well obviously, imaging a chamber is going to take some time, being that it is below the ocean. And they are obviously competing for time aboard equipped ships, which are in high demand, as the article says. I would imagine seismologists have already started looking for any low velocity anomalies. Those can be traced back through historic earthquake data, as well as from new earthquake data. They use varying phases from seismic waves from larger earthquake to determine these things. It is called seismic tomography. Generally speaking, any melt areas yield lower velocity waves- since the waves travel faster through solids. It gets much more complicated than that. Just tell me how far you'd like me to go.

Ok, I did edit the title, but that is so close, it still may possibly be the solar system's largest volcano. Especially as they return and do further research around it. Erosion could also possibly play a part here, and they will have to calculate that.

Whups.

Tamu Massif covers an area roughly equivalent to the British Isles or the state of New Mexico, making it nearly as big as the giant volcanoes of Mars and placing it among the largest in the Solar System.

www.science20.com...

Still not number one. May want to edit your title.

Looking around a bit more about this, it appears the lava composition is mostly basalt, which contains a lower silica content, and would not likely be explosive. These types of lava flows under water generally produce pillow type lava- and that is probably what those gradual slopes of Tamu are made of. In one article it was compared to the Siberian Traps- but that is a volcanic complex, not a single volcano. Still, this beast is impressive.

Jicha added that “if it is indeed really one volcano, and the case is fairly compelling, the amount of magma that had to go through the lithosphere [crust] is off the charts.”

“Not only does [Tamu Massif] give us a new wow in the form of a giant new volcano, but it gives us new insight into a building block of an oceanic plateau,” said Sager.

He’s not sure if the new volcano will help scientists better understand Olympus Mons on Mars, but noted that “we can see the surface of Mars better than we can see the bottom of the ocean.”

Tamu Massif, he said, “has been hiding out for 145 million years because it found a good place to hide.”

news.nationalgeographic.com...

Here is for readers the fulltext from Nature Geoscience's institutional paywall.

Note - advance online publication version, not the final, ultimate formatting.

4.36 MB pdf

jjjtir.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/ngeo1934.pdf

An immense shield volcano within the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau, northwest Pacific Ocean


Nature Geoscience
(2013)
doi:10.1038/ngeo1934

Received
15 June 2013
Accepted
01 August 2013
Published online
08 September 2013

dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1934

Thanks for sharing this TA. It appears to have several cones (apparently), in line with many other similar basalt volcanoes. They also think it erupted for "several million years" and then stopped, around 140 million years ago. That makes it most definitely extinct.

However, they did add the doozy that most of the volcano is within the crust, saying it is located on very thin crust that can't support it's weight. To me, that says there is potentially still a direct line down to vast amounts of magma? Clearly not one to worry about except in terms of doom porn!

The way it is described makes me think it is the remnants of an early Pacific version of the Mid Atlantic Ridge but i could be way off the mark there!

Theia on venus is a big volcano. maybe not the biggest bit pretty close ,800km.

*Double Post* (Deleted)

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

That footprint is bigger than Mons.

A bit. Which has a larger volume?

Looks like Olympus Mons is sort of the clear winner.

Do you think that the oceans pressure kept the height from being near as tall? Also mars has less atmospheric pressure. I think it would have been a big volcano if it wasn't formed under the ocean, however not as wide. Probably something like the other volcano shown in the graph.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


I just received this today at work and certainly caught my attention too!

Volcano the size of Arizona discovered

Scientists at the University of Houston say that Tamu Massif, an underwater volcano, is the largest volcano on Earth. The volcano is also one of the biggest in our entire solar system.
Arden Dier, Newser 1:32 p.m. EDT September 6, 2013


Scientists have made a surprising discovery in the Pacific Ocean about 1,000 miles east of Japan: Earth's largest volcano.

Tamu Massif is a monster at 280 miles by 400 miles, or roughly the size of Arizona, and ranks among the largest such structures in our solar system, Nature reports by way of a Nature Geoscience study.
The existence of Tamu Massif has been long known, but geologists believed it to be composed of several volcanoes that merged.
Research conducted in 2010 and 2012 changed things. That's when researchers sailed over Tamu Massif and sent seismic waves through it using air guns.

"We saw what appear to be lava flows going out from the center of the volcano in all directions, with no obvious large secondary source of volcanism," says lead author William Sager — meaning this is "one huge volcano." (Though one that has been inactive for as many as 145 million years.)
But Tamu Massif differs from typical seamounts in that it has a nearly indiscernible slope—around 1 degree near the summit (which sits 6,500 feet below the surface), and much less near the base, National Geographic reports. And Sager says other oceanic plateaus could also be volcanoes: "There may be bigger ones out there."

I recognize this isn't sourced buy I don't know the original sourcing..

I have a question for the science whiz types on this? I've caught the running talk about extinct so, call my question a hair more hypothetical then, but still a valid one, I think.

What would happen, starting at 6,500 feet down, as the OP mentioned for depth, if something like this one turned Krakatoa on us? Would you even see activity on the surface, so far above or would the immense water pressure work to shape and contain the blast? The energy from a catastrophic release like Krakatoa was would have to go somewhere, right? So where would it go?

My first thought was a Tsunami the ISS could notice making landfall if they looked the right way at the right moment ...but then, I can think of other factors which might work to negate or cancel that out entirely?

Someone here with far more education in geology than I've had must have some idea what a bang like that would do in the real world?

reply to post by TrueAmerican

"The mega volcano has been inactive for 140 million years"

I find this type of crap hilarious We just discover it, and automatically know how many hundred bajillion years its been inactive for

Meanwhile human kind has been around for *insert dramatic number here*

Very cool though, thanks for sharing

Originally posted by Rosinitiate
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

Volcano the size of Arizona discovered

Scientists at the University of Houston say that Tamu Massif, an underwater volcano, is the largest volcano on Earth. The volcano is also one of the biggest in our entire solar system.
Arden Dier, Newser 1:32 p.m. EDT September 6, 2013

Haha.. Not only do we know the hundred million years of inactivty, we have alraedy named it As well as determined its size amongst the solar system LOL. Science is that good huh

Wait until we find one bigger then "T-Mass" (cool nickname I just made up) in the future!

Originally posted by SixX18

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

That footprint is bigger than Mons.

A bit. Which has a larger volume?

Looks like Olympus Mons is sort of the clear winner.

Do you think that the oceans pressure kept the height from being near as tall? Also mars has less atmospheric pressure. I think it would have been a big volcano if it wasn't formed under the ocean, however not as wide. Probably something like the other volcano shown in the graph.

edit on 9/6/13 by SixX18 because: (no reason given)

Ocean pressure isn't really going to keep a volcano from being able to rise from the deep ocean to the surface and beyond. Mauna Loa is a great example of that as it started about 5,000 meters down under the ocean and now is 4,170 meters above sea level (so it's 9,170 meters tall).

However, the Pacific plate is moving, and Mauna Loa has not always been over that hot spot, where as on Mars, with no plate movement, Olympus Mons has been over the same hot spot for a very long time, allowing the material to accumulate for much longer of a period. About 350 million years or so.

Mauna Loa on the other hand is only some where between 700,000 to 1 million years old.

This new "mega" volcano, once further study has gone into it, will show a more exact number for it's age, but more than likely it's period of eruptions will be shorter than Olympus Mons' 350 million years.

reply to post by Phage


I haven't had time to search much. Where, exactly, is this NM sized volcano in the Pacific?

I gather it's in the Northern hemisphere?

Originally posted by BO XIAN
reply to post by Phage

 

I haven't had time to search much. Where, exactly, is this NM sized volcano in the Pacific?

I gather it's in the Northern hemisphere?

It's about 1,073 miles due east of Tokyo, Japan.

Exact coordinates:

32 deg, 11' 55" N
158 deg 11' 16" E

reply to post by eriktheawful


Much appreciate it. Should be able to get to those via Google Earth.

Have a blessed Sonday.

For the sake of discussion. If this volcano did erupt, I don't think it'd be violent because it's not a strato volcano, or a caldera. Wouldn't it just spew lava and make a new continent being the sheer size of it?

majesticgent
For the sake of discussion. If this volcano did erupt, I don't think it'd be violent because it's not a strato volcano, or a caldera. Wouldn't it just spew lava and make a new continent being the sheer size of it?

Uh,,, let's not find out. Mmkay