Geologists and volcanologists have studied much about volcanoes on land. Undersea volcanoes though are much harder to study, as many of them are deep under the sea. For undersea volcano facts, blame the sea floor for initiating it.
Most volcanologists have said that undersea volcanoes act much like those on land. When magma slowly goes up and pressure beneath it becomes critical, the volcano erupts. However, at least some undersea volcanoes might have a different way of being activated.
In some instances, the sea floor might be the trigger for undersea volcanoes. This has been the view of lead author Yen Joe Tan. He is a graduate student from Colombia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
The volcano that has been studied is found on the Mid-Pacific Rise, around 700 miles from Mexico. Tan said such mid-ocean ridges are seafloor volcanoes and act like land-based volcanoes. The ridges though can be seen as tears on the crust, from which magma then would flow from.
Just like the Pacific ring of fire, these mid-ocean ridges run through the Earth's crust. They stretch for 40,000 miles on the seafloor, according to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory site. As lava comes out from the ridges, the ocean floor spreads out even more. This drives the ocean floor towards the continents. The surface that touches the continents is then subducted, or pushed under, back into the Earth's crust and mantle.
To study more about ocean ridges, Tan along with his colleagues have studied an eruption that took place in 2005-2006, as Science Daily reports. An earlier team had recorded the eruption with microphones, seismometers and cameras. Samples of the lava have also been taken. This data has been studied by Tan along with a new eruption in 2015 at the Axial Seamount, which is off the coast of Oregon.
Using both data, the team has said that the earthquakes happened just as the rupture is taking place. There has been no help coming from magma pressure, as it would have occurred in most volcanoes. Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist at Lamont-Doherty said that it is not easy to determine what exactly triggers undersea volcanoes. Either magma or plate tectonics can play a role.
Undersea volcanoes would still need further study in order to determine what causes them to erupt. Studying them is difficult, as they are usually deep under the sea. So far though undersea volcanoes facts say to blame the sea floor for initiating it. Earthquakes are a reality to many people, so it is urged that preparation for it must be made early.
