The Earth's largest volcano found under the sea

Mauna Loa, in Hawaii, is known as the largest volcano in the world. However, from the recent research found that the size of Tamu Massif was larger than Mauna Loa. In addition, Tamu Massif is 2 km under the sea on an underwater plateau known as the Shatsky Rise in the northwest Pacific Ocean or about 1,600 km east of Japan. This mountain size slightly larger than Mauna Loa. At 310,000 sq km (119,000 sq mi) the Tamu Massif size was 25 percent smaller than Olympus Mons on the Mars as the largest volcano in our Milky Way solar system.

A 3D map of Tamu Massif, the world's biggest volcano. (Picture from: http://www.livescience.com/)

"This is a class of volcanoes that have not been recognized previously," says William Sager, a geologist at the University of Houston, USA, who led the study. He wrote and published the results of his research in the Nature Geoscience journal on September 6, 2013.

Tamu Massif stretches 650 kilometers wide, but only 4,000 meters high. The volcano erupted several million years during the early Cretaceous period, about 144 million years ago. Since then raging Tamu Massif slowly evaporate. "This mountain has a very gentle slope. If you stand on it, you will hard to determine which way to the valley," said Sager.

Mauna Loa, in Hawaii, previously held the record for the largest volcano. (Picture from: http://metro.co.uk/)

The mountains has the size of New Mexico's or the British Isles. The mountain is named TAMU, taken from the abbreviation Texas A & M University. While the "Massif" is a term for various types of mountains structures. In this case the Tamu Massif including shield volcano type or the mountain dome or crater is still closed.

The Mauna Loa is a large shield volcano built by countless lava flows. When measured from the top to base, the lava piles more than 17 thousand meters (56 thousand feet). Mauna is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. Since 1843, the mountain erupted 33 times and has well-documented eruption. The last eruption occurred in 1984 and since 2004 showed signs of increased activity. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 4339]
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