New Giant Volcano Below Sea Is Largest In the World 105
An anonymous reader writes "If you're a fan of gigantic volcanoes you'll be happy to know that the biggest volcano on Earth, and one of the biggest in the solar system, has just been discovered under the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles east of Japan. From the article: 'Called Tamu Massif, the giant shield volcano had been thought to be a composite of smaller structures, but now scientists say they must rethink long-held beliefs about marine geology. "This finding goes against what we thought, because we found that it's one huge volcano," said William Sager, a geology professor at the University of Houston in Texas. Sager is lead author in a study about the find that was published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience. "It is in the same league as Olympus Mons on Mars, which had been considered to be the largest volcano in the solar system," Sager told National Geographic.'"
Yep (Score:2, Insightful)
Yep, there is bunch of stuff that is hiding under water in the sea that we haven't discovered yet.
Re:Yep (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Yep (Score:5, Insightful)
They didn't "redefine" it, they studied it until they understood it better. If you go to the doctor, are you upset because you get a diagnosis of a specific bacterial infection and a prescription for antibiotics instead of a diagnosis of "fever" and a bleeding to restore the balance of your bodily humors?
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But then the evil pharmaceutical companies wouldn't be getting rich off our tax dollars...!! /sarcasm
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Ah, well, yes, there is that.
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Some of it dark and terrible...
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To heck with Mars (Score:2)
We need to explore and discover our own planet first. There is in fact much greater opportunity to have viable undersea colonies on Earth than building colonies on Mars.
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That is just one factor. Consider: :)
1) Shorter distance to transport materials, colonists, and supplies.
2) Abundance of food.
3) Easier communications.
4) Easier rescue missions.
5) Plenty of water
6) Easier to get oxygen from water.
I'm sure there are others. That is just a short list. There is no way we can get a significant number of colonists onto Mars in 20 to 30 years. It would be easier to colonize at least continental waters in that time span.
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I wonder when the evil genius of the week is moving in down there?
Ahem. This is where Godzilla lives.
In the solar system? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry if this may seem ignorant, but how can we be sure it might be the biggest volcano in the solar system if we only just discovered this one on *our* planet?
Re:In the solar system? (Score:5, Informative)
It didn't say it was the biggest volcano in the solar system, but one of the biggest. The biggest known one is Alba Mons on Mars, which is a staggering 5.7 million square kilometres in size. Olympus Mons, also on Mars, is in the range of 300,000 square kilometres, so is the Tamu Massif on Earth, so these two volcanoes compete for the #2 spot. Only other places besides Earth and Mars that have or ever had active volcanoes are Venus and Io. Venus's largest (Maat Mons) is less than half the size of Olympus Mons/Tamu Massif, and Io's largest (Inachus Tholus) is only a tenth that.
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Re:In the solar system? (Score:4, Insightful)
You can safely assume a "that we know of" clause on every scientific statement ever made. Scientists don't bother actually stating it because it would get rather repetitive and unreadable, plus it's not the only such assumed qualification and including them all would make science papers and books about 20x longer.
And of course the claim you state was never made anyway since we already know of bigger volcanoes. Which is an example of these implied qualifications: the Mars volcanoes are not active, to the best of our knowledge they are volcanoes - the geology matches what we expect volcanoes to be and so on. However, a volcano by definition requires a magma chamber and we since they aren't active we can't be 100% sure. There is no other mainstream explanation and they fit volcanoes like a glove so no qualifications would usually actually be stated, the electric universe folk think they are scars from electrical discharges as an example of a completely different interpretation.
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> Sorry if this may seem ignorant, but how can we be sure it might be the biggest volcano in the solar system if we only just discovered this one on *our* planet?
This is not an ignorant question at all. We are not sure if it is the largest volcano in the Solar System, we just know that it is the largest that we know of on Earth, and one of the largest that we know of in the Solar System. We will not be sure until we have completely explored the entire ocean floor, under the Antarctic and Greenland ice
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We will not be sure until we have completely explored ... the surfaces of every rocky planet and moon in the Solar System.
Is there a particular reason that you are excluding the gas giants?
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The gas giants are believed not to have an actual surface, but rather a steadily increasing density from what we could call gas to what we would call solid. It is difficult to see how a volcano, which has a defined surface, could exist. If as surface does, contrary to belief, exist, we cannot see it and therefore can say nothing about its structure - including volcanoes.
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Sorry. I don't buy it. If there is solid matter, then it must have a surface. At some point there are going to be molecules that are part of the solid's lattice, and some that are not.
Hmmm... is it really meaningful to talk about a "surface" under pressures and temperatures at the center of Jupiter? It seems like current theory is that the core of jupiter is a giant molten soup, but with that amount of mass there could be something exotic and cool like a sea of giant carbon crystals floating on the molten core.... would you call that a surface?
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there could be something exotic and cool like a sea of giant carbon crystals floating on the molten core.... would you call that a surface?
Sounds to me like the raw ingredients for a diamond volcano spewing molten carbon.
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It's a flaw in our thinking. We prefer binary values, even though they are uncommon in nature. When does the day become night? Is it the start of sunset, the end of sunset, the end of civil twilight, or the end of nautical twilight? With the gravity on the gas giants bordering on ridiculous, a lot of effects we are familiar with here vanish there.
so what did they think actually ? (Score:1)
"Called Tamu Massif, the giant shield volcano had been thought to be a composite of smaller structures"
"This finding goes against what we thought, because we found that it's one huge volcano,"
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They thought is was a composite of many smaller volcanoes and have discovered it's not.
Like discovering that the Himalaya is a single mountain that's been cut in several pointy tops by... monks, or something.
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hah. if i read it carefully, it actually makes much more sense ;)
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RTFA,
It has been dead for 145 million years
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So, any day now
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Zombie Volcanoes!
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I tried, they only wanted wrassling volcanoes.
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn (Score:3, Funny)
Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn
Re: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fh (Score:3, Funny)
I recommend Sudafed
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We will need a very large Sudafed capsule to calm down the Deep One.
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WTF National Geographic??!! (Score:2)
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Really, and National Geographic without pictures is like Anita Bryant without orange juice.
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Seaquest ftw...
Great show, until they went the Alien route, completely killed it.. (like most shows that attempt it)...
But in reality, i'd love to see people start moving under the ocean to both live and work, i think it would be awesome.
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Blast! You beat me to posting this :)
The answer to Marvin the Martian's question... (Score:2)
Same league as Olympus Mons? (Score:2)
How? Olympus Mons is 22km high. Volcano in question is barely 4km tall.
Re:Same league as Olympus Mons? (Score:5, Informative)
They're compared in terms of surface area. Both Olympus Mons and the Tamu Massif occupy an area approximately 300,000 square kilometres.
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Re:It's not 'new' (Score:5, Funny)
What's the largest married volcano?
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My momma is not now, nor has she ever been, married.
They wrote about this in Sanctuary (Score:2)
They wrote about this in Sanctuary, so now we need to be afraid, very afraid :-)
So, Pacific Rim was right? (Score:3, Funny)
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4: Large force of expandable henchmen. Advert up in the Evening Post.
Make sure you put the advert in the restaurant section.
Extinct volcano (Score:3)
This volcano is extinct and it is not producing any lava today or magma for that matter. So this is now just an volcano that nature is weathering down slowly.
A couple of details that bugs me (Score:2)
Someone call Syfy and Discovery! (Score:2)
And cue up a zillion new disaster movies and documentaries about how this "new" super volcano could destroy the planet. I mean that is the only few things these channels offer these days, disaster movies and docs about the potential for disasters, and shows about logging.
Someone needs to keep Dean Cain employed!
Synopsis: Dean Cain, a retired US geologist is standing on his paddleboard off the coast of Hawaii when a freak wave washes over him and crashes ashore. Scratching his head and thinking that somet
Re:"This finding goes against what we thought" (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it isn't a fundamental problem with science; they changed what they thought when new evidence to the contrary came to light. That's exactly how science is supposed to work.
Re:"This finding goes against what we thought" (Score:5, Interesting)
That's exactly how science is supposed to work.
The master said it best:
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And this is a fundamental problem with religious fundamentalists... they can't handle the fact that scientists can change their minds when fresh evidence emerges.
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That's because they deal in dogma and sell certainty. Can't be a confidence trickster without plenty of confidence.