Move Over Toba and Yellowstone- World's Biggest Volcano Discovered

Geophysicists have discovered what they say is the largest single volcano on Earth, a 650-kilometre-wide beast the size of the British Isles lurking beneath the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean.

The megavolcano has been inactive for some 140 million years. But its very existence will help geophysicists to set limits on how much magma can be stored in Earth's crust and pour out onto the surface. It also shows that Earth can produce volcanoes on par with Olympus Mons on Mars, which, at 625 kilometres across, was until now the biggest volcano known in the Solar System.

www.nature.com...

More at article!





That is one serious monster. 650 km? My God. I am just... Speechless. Ta..TA... TAMU!

Wait untill some greedy prat sticks an oil well on top of it

OOO! You beat me to it! I went to post this earlier but I'm a new member and still under my 20 post cap This is insane how big this thing is. 4. Hundred. Miles. It says that it is "inactive" does that mean it is forever inactive? I'm not to brushed up on my geology, is it "dormant" that means it is asleep for now but could still blow? Anyway, here comes more material for doom porn fanatics!

Great - right in-between the two most seismically active regions of the globe. Wouldn't that put on a show for us. Raining pacific as far as New York.

650km = 403.8 miles

625km = 388.3 miles

That is huge.

Originally posted by bananamamma
OOO! You beat me to it! I went to post this earlier but I'm a new member and still under my 20 post cap

This is insane how big this thing is. 4. Hundred. Miles. It says that it is "inactive" does that mean it is forever inactive? I'm not to brushed up on my geology, is it "dormant" that means it is asleep for now but could still blow? Anyway, here comes more material for doom porn fanatics!

Inactive means dormant. Extinct means it no longer has a lava chamber. Dormant (Yellowstone), means it has erupted sometime in the past and still has a magma chamber. Calling it inactive means they believe it has erupted sometime in the past; yet not active at this time. It has a lava chamber so it's not extinct.

Lets put it this way - If it's not extinct it's not a certainty it could not erupt again.

Also - in my reference to yellowstone as a comparison above - I'm not sure how Yellowstone is classified today. It has been called dormant in scientific journals but active by park personnel. Regardless - it is not extinct, which is what most want (for assurances) in a super volcano.

reply to post by Dianec


So it's just on hiatus, really..

reply to post by Dianec

Inactive means dormant. Extinct means it no longer has a lava chamber. Dormant (Yellowstone), means it has erupted sometime in the past and still has a magma chamber.

No.
Inactive does not mean dormant. "Inactive" is not a geological designation.

An active volcano is a volcano that has had at least one eruption during the past 10,000 years. An active volcano might be erupting or dormant.

An erupting volcano is an active volcano that is having an eruption...

A dormant volcano is an active volcano that is not erupting, but supposed to erupt again.

An extinct volcano has not had an eruption for at least 10,000 years and is not expected to erupt again in a comparable time scale of the future.

www.volcanodiscovery.com...

This would definitely be classified as an exinct volcano.

Dang. Poor Mauna Loa has lost her status as largest single geological feature on Earth. Oh, well. Still the largest active volcano.

It's not the biggest volcano in the solar system, as your title suggests. If memory serves me correctly, it's 25% smaller than Olympus Mons, the Martian volcano.
It's still unimaginably huge, though.

reply to post by Dreamer99

About the same footprint. But Olympus Mons is much, much taller.

reply to post by Phage


It's amazing how huge it is, and yet in an article I read earlier they said the slope was so gradual that you would have a hard time figuring out whether you were going up or down.

reply to post by Phage


I am aware that inactive is not a designation. Therefore I used a process of elimination. Because the article used present tense to suggest magma comes out of a central area I assume it has magma. I was told that an extinct volcano meant no magma so my bad. I can now see that is not the case.

Perhaps there is a better article because I was drawing assumptions based on what I was able to gain from this article. I looked for a source that might provide more information and found one from Feb, 2013 but am not yet certain it's in reference to the same volcano. That one does have magma in it and was considered dormant.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


Of course something called worlds biggest will be on earth. Worlds biggest storms are on earth and not on Jupiter. Btw it is not the title of your link

reply to post by Dianec

Originally posted by Dianec
Great - right in-between the two most seismically active regions of the globe. Wouldn't that put on a show for us. Raining pacific as far as New York.

Maybe both active regions originated when that vulcano was active.

reply to post by Dianec

The megavolcano has been inactive for some 140 million years.

www.nature.com...

That's quite a bit more than 10,000 years and there is no indication that any seismic or geothermal activity has been detected. Well and truly extinct. Which isn't to say there can't be surprises.

But, judging by its profile, it's a shield type volcano. A type not known for violent, "super volcano" type eruptions.

I Knew we'd find Earths belly button some day. I'm in awe of the shear size of it . We shall call him...... Biga Den Mars !!

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by Dianec

 

The megavolcano has been inactive for some 140 million years.

www.nature.com...

That's quite a bit more than 10,000 years and there is no indication that any seismic or geothermal activity has been detected. Well and truly extinct. Which isn't to say there can't be surprises.

But, judging by its profile, it's a shield type volcano. A type not known for violent, "super volcano" type eruptions.

edit on 9/6/2013 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Good to know they haven't detected anything to suggest it is anything other than extinct. It would have been nice for them to use correct terminology in this article as it does not specify but leaves that up for interpretation. It will be of interest to see if a magma chamber is present or if it's exhausted.

Originally posted by Dreamer99
It's not the biggest volcano in the solar system, as your title suggests. If memory serves me correctly, it's 25% smaller than Olympus Mons, the Martian volcano.
It's still unimaginably huge, though.

Umm, what part of this pic do you not understand?



That footprint is bigger than Mons.

And if a single vent, as discussed in article, that would potentially be devastating if it erupted again. The questions I have now are in reference to what kind of magma was erupted- whether it was explosive of effusive. Even though the same volcano can have different types of eruptions as magma composition changes. And if it did erupt, it wouldn't be the first time an extinct volcano awakened. Consider this story:

ai-malyshev.narod.ru...

Mount Bezymyannyi (at the left) � extinct Kamen Volcano (at the right) in January of 1949.

Before October of 1955 Bezymyannyi was considered as extinct volcano and as a matter of fact it even hadn't name. The name of Bezymyannyi may be translated into English as Nameless. In 1954 the study of this imperceptible (in comparison with surrounding volcanos) mount was entrusted to G. Bogoyavlenskaya. Then she was a young post-graduate. However Volcano awoke in October of 1955 and the gigantic eruption has taken place on March 30, 1956. After that some scientists of Kamchatka Volcanic Station began to speak as a joke: "Even the volcano does not stand up to the woman nature and flies into a rage..."

First indications of arousing Bezymyannyi are referred by September 29, 1955, when Kluchi Seismic Station began to record earthquakes from Volcano. The first historical eruption began about 6 clocks 30 minutes October 22, 1955.

Yes, they CAN awaken. Chances are though, it probably won't.

Originally posted by Dumbass

reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

Of course something called worlds biggest will be on earth. Worlds biggest storms are on earth and not on Jupiter. Btw it is not the title of your link

reply to post by Dianec

 

Originally posted by Dianec
Great - right in-between the two most seismically active regions of the globe. Wouldn't that put on a show for us. Raining pacific as far as New York.

Maybe both active regions originated when that vulcano was active.

I couldn't say if it had anything to do with creating the existing faults since I'm far from a geologist but it's a good question. I can't see how it wouldn't have an impact given it's all in the same region.

reply to post by TrueAmerican

That footprint is bigger than Mons.

A bit. Which has a larger volume?

Looks like Olympus Mons is sort of the clear winner.

Originally posted by Phage
reply to post by TrueAmerican

 

That footprint is bigger than Mons.

A bit. Which has a larger volume?

Looks like Olympus Mons is sort of the clear winner.

Until a magma chamber is imaged below Tamu, that's not necessarily true. For all they know Tamu could be a collapsed caldera. Need more info.