Largest Earth Volcano Discovered

Carole sent this wonderful  National Geographic article.

It tells about the recent studies of a super volcano like other, well except the monster on Mars Olympus Mons.  

The area, now designated Tamu Massif was until very recently considered to be a collection of smaller structures.  It was very much like the proverbial group of blind people asked to touch different areas on an elephant and then describe the animal from that one localized examination.   Tamu Massif is so huge that many researchers could not see the complete structure.

And Tamu Massif is indeed huge.  From the NG article:

• (Tamu Massif is ) A volcano the size of New Mexico or the British Isles has been identified under the Pacific Ocean, about 1,000 miles east of Japan, making it the biggest volcano on Earth and one of the biggest in the solar system.
• Tamu Massif is a rounded dome that measures about 280 by 400 miles or more than 100,000 square miles. Its top lies about 6,500 feet below the ocean surface, while the base extends down to about 4 miles deep. Tamu Massif dwarfs the largest active volcano on Earth....

Yep you read that right, A 100 thousand mile ACTIVE volcano!

Tamu Massif is a volcanic type known as a shield volcano, like Mar's massive Olympus Mons.  This makes Tamu Massif the largest volcano on Earth and one of the LARGEST in the solar system. 

Read the complete National Geographic article written by Brian Clark Howard, HERE 

***Error update***  reader Dennis just brought an error to my attention.  For some reason I read the article to say "active"  when that is not the case.  

The Moon May Have As Much Water as Earth?!

Scientists have announced that sub-surface Moon rock may contain as much water as we have on Earth. Levels in fact 100 times higher than previous estimates.

Now before you start envisioning well drilled to huge aquifers you should know that these new figures are based on samples brought back from the Moon by Apollo 17. The deep core-sample contained glass beads with trapped water in them.

High levels of water on the Moon is a bit of a mixed blessing. The down side is the theory of the Earth being created by a Mars sized impactor pealing the Moon off the proto-Earth. The problem is that the impact would have left virtually no water behind. Present theory has water brought from deep within the Moon by volcanic activity.

for the complete article and links to other articles check the IO9 blog here

Volcanoes May Have Killed the Dinosaurs?!

For the last 30 years, the prevailing theory has been that an asteroid, around six miles across, hit the Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago, throwing debris into the atmosphere, blocking the sun and chilling the planet to the point that nearly half of all species went extinct. Ah but here's the rub, recent discoveries can not tie a single extinction event to the Yucatan / Chicxulub event.

Evidence is accumulating that it wasn't an asteroid that did the beasts in, but volcanoes. Volcanic events lasting almost 10,000 years, laying down miles deep deposits and throwing more that 10 times the amount of more climate-changing emissions into the atmosphere than the asteroid impact. Also supporting the volcanic theory is fossil evidence from Texas and Mexico that most of the species extinctions coincided with the final pulse of eruptions, not with the asteroid impact, which may have occurred approximately 300,000 years earlier.

There is even evidence that dinosaurs lived in India (where the massive eruptions occurred) right up to the last phase of the volcanic event - but not afterward.

The argument against of course is that there is volcanism, there was volcanism and there always will be.... so volcanism alone is not in and of itself unique. However the asteroid impact was and therefor can not be dismissed out of hand.

<- read more in Wired ->

Probe spies Jupiter's moon Io's volcanic plume

Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back images of a huge volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io. A massive dust plume, estimated to be 150 miles (240km) high, can be seen erupting from Io's Tvashtar volcano. On Wednesday, the US probe flew by Jupiter, using the planet's gravity to boost its speed, reducing the travel time to its ultimate target of Pluto. New Horizons also took photos of the icy moons Europa and Ganymede in the run-up to its encounter with Jupiter. New Horizons made its closest approach to Jupiter on Wednesday, passing within 2.3 million km (1.4 million miles) of the planet. The probe will carry out more than 700 observations of the Jupiter system by June, in a dry run for its planned rendezvous with Pluto and its moons in 2015.

posted by Shaun A. Saunders