The largest volcano of the Solar System is hidden under the Pacific Ocean

The team from the US and China discovered the Tamu Massif volcano in the Pacific, which has a large area of ​​Japan and South Korea combined.

Tamu Massif volcanic map made by sea depth measurements.(Photos: Wikipedia)

In a study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, the Chinese and American international researchers concluded that the world's largest volcano is larger than previously discovered. They call the birth of a volcano one of the most exciting events in the history of the earth and the miracle of creation due to its rarity.

According to the South China Morning Post, Tamu Massif , the shield-shaped volcano was formed 145 million years ago in the late Jurassic, at a depth of 2km below sea level, between Japan and Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean . Although the classification of Tamu Massif is a single volcano is still controversial, the mountain was first found in September 2013 by the research team of William Sager, a marine geophysicist at the Department of Earth Sciences and atmosphere of University of Houston, USA.

After analyzing more seismic data and mapping the underlying hidden structure of the volcano, the Sager group realized they might not have estimated the true size of the mountain. They calculated the entire Shatsky Rise area, the plateau rising below the ocean after Tamu Massif erupted 533,000 km2.

Previously, scientists thought the volcano was about the size of Japan in terms of soil volume. According to new estimates, it is as big as Japan and South Korea combined. They also think Tamu Massif is much smaller than the Olympus Mons volcano on Mars, which is considered the largest solar system in the solar system. The height of Tamu Massif is 4 km while the Olympus Mons is 22 km high.

In the new Oceanographic Institute study in Guangzhou, China, Tamu Massif's surface area is 80% larger than Olympus Mons.

" Tamu Massif creates a wider dome. It is bigger than any other volcano we have known in the solar system, considering the surface area, " said Zhang Jinchang, the scientist who led the study. New rescue, said.

Large-scale volcanoes like this are extremely rare. Previously, scientists once thought that volcanoes of this type did not exist. Today's largest active volcano is Mauna Loa in Hawaii, USA, with a mountain base about 5,000 km2 wide, only 1/100 of Tamu Massif's size.

Tamu Massif stopped working in the early Cretaceous period, the geological period ended 100 million years ago, meaning it " died " only a few million years after its birth. But Zhang insisted the mountain will not revive .

Zhang's research shows that the discontinuity point Mohorovic (abbreviated to Moho), the boundary separating the Earth's crust and the coating, slopes down more than 30 km above the foot of Tamu Massif, forming an impenetrable barrier between Magmatic ore and ocean floor.