A dozen previously undiscovered volcanoes have been found off of Antarctica using a sonar survey.
The multibeam sonar survey, conducted by the British Antarctic Survey, was conducted to fill in a 600 kilometre gap in existing seabed maps.
The nearby Sandwich Islands are volcanic, and, in 1962, a passing British naval vessel found large patches of floating pumice that could only come from a nearby underwater eruption, so the surveyors were expecting to find volcanoes, but they weren’t expected them to be so large – some of the volcanoes are up to 3,000 m tall, the equivalent of Mt Fuji.
Existing sea charts have the area marked as deep water, however, some of the volcanoes rise within 70 metres of the surface.
The find is important, scientifically, in that it will provide some research opportunities. When undersea volcanoes collapse, they can create tsunamis, and this process can now be studied. The still active volcanoes also have hydrothermal vents, which support life in environments analogous to hot springs found on other worlds, furthering the understanding of the tolerances of life.
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