Volcano Birth - It's Complicated

Thursday, October 17, 2013 - 10:41 in Earth & Climate

When most people think of the Antarctic, they think of snow, ice and glaciers - but the continent and surrounding waters are littered with fiery volcanoes. The Marie Byrd Seamounts in the Amundsen Sea are not active, like many volcanoes there are. Their summit plateaus are today at depths of 2400-1600 meters but, because they are very difficult to reach with conventional research vessels, they have hardly been explored. What is intriguing is that they do not fit any of the usual models for the formation of volcanoes. Now geologists from GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel were able to find a possible explanation for the existence of these seamounts on the basis of rare specimens.  read more

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