Explosive volcanic eruptions are possible deep down in the sea – although the water masses exert enormous pressure there. An international team reports in the journal "Nature Geoscience" how this can happen.
Explosive volcanic eruptions are possible deep down in the sea – although the water masses exert enormous pressure there. An international team reports in the journal "Nature Geoscience" how this can happen.
Most volcanic eruptions take place unseen at the bottom of the world's oceans. In recent years, oceanography has shown that this submarine volcanism not only deposits lava but also ejects large amounts of volcanic ash.
"So even under layers of water kilometers thick, which exert great pressure and thus prevent effective degassing, there must be mechanisms that lead to an 'explosive' disintegration of magma," says Professor Bernd Zimanowski, head of the Physical-Volcanological Laboratory of Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany.
Publication of an international research group
An international research group led by Professors James White (New Zealand), Pierfrancesco Dellino (Italy) and Bernd Zimanowski (JMU) has now demonstrated such a mechanism for the first time. The results have been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Read more at University of Würzburg
