1000 degree C water tank under Bolivia volcano

Water tank with a volume of about 1.5 km ³ , located 15 km deep under the volcano Uturuncu, Bolivia can conduct electricity and activate volcanic eruptions.

The research team at the University of Bristol, UK, has discovered a 15km water tank under the Uturuncu volcano , Bolivia, Science Alert on 9/11 reported.

After a thorough examination, they concluded that the volume of water in the tank was about 1.5 km ³ , equivalent to the amount of water in Lake Superior, the largest and deepest lake of the Great Lakes in North America and the third largest in the world.

1,000 degree C water tank located 15km deep under Uturuncu volcano, Bolivia.(Photo: Michael Sayles).

The tank is named this Altiplano-Puna lava block with temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Celsius and mixed with molten rock. It can make volcanic eruptions easy. In addition, the Altiplano-Puna lava block can conduct electricity and seems to cause geological waves to move more slowly, unlike the surrounding lava that is not mixed with water.

To understand its activity, the team brought 500,000-year-old rocks spewed from volcanoes mixed with laboratory water in an environment that is 15 km below the Earth's surface. They calculate about 8-10% water dissolved in molten silicate.

"10% of the volume of dissolved water is a water molecule combined with three silicate molecules. This is an unusually large part of water to explain the very good conductor of this silicate liquid," said Fabrice Gaillard. from the University of Orleans, France, one of the researchers, said.

The team has not been able to explain the role of conductivity as well as its impact on volcanic eruptions. They are planning to find out if this unusual conductivity is a sign of a secret water tank deep beneath other large volcanoes. If this is correct, the team hopes to find a way to make their volcanic eruption to predict when volcanic eruptions are more accurate.