Largest Underwater Volcanoes

From Silicon India News: Largest Underwater Volcanoes
Bangalore: Volcanoes have been a threat to human life and other species existing in the environment as they are unexpected. In the world there are many volcanoes that are active and eruption takes place anytime. Like them there are underwater volcanoes that cause heavy damage to the marine life when erupted.


As technology has developed these volcanic eruptions can be measured before and instructions are passed to avoid further life or property loses. Here are 10 Largest Underwater Volcanoes that are ready to snatch away lives as much as possible with their hot and poisonous gases.

Kolumbo, Santorini Island
This is one of the largest and active underwater volcanoes in the world. This volcano has not seen any major eruptions for long time but is said to be one of the most dangerous one. The active submarine volcano is located in Aegean Sea which is 8km northeast of cape Kolumbo of Santorini Island.


The diameter of the volcano is about 3 km with crater 1.5 km across. The last explosion happened in 1650 where the lava reached the surface of the sea and spread to the shores of Santorini which led to the death of about 70 people and several animals.

Mt Marsili, Europe
Europe’s largest submarine volcano is an active one, the scientists have stated. Mt Marsili is one of Europe’s largest submarine volcanoes which is active according to scientists who have been monitoring it continuously. This mountain rises to an altitude of 9800 feet from the Tyrrhenian Sea bed and can cause large tidal waves in southern Italy if there is an eruption.

Mount Marsili is a 3000-metre high seamount beneath the Tyrrhenian Sea, 150 km south-west of Naples. Marsili is active and recent research has indicated signs of restlessness.

Aleutian Islands, Alaska
The Aleutian Islands are a chain of rugged, volcanic islands curving 1,900 kilometer west from the tip of the Alaska Peninsula and approaching Russia's Komandorski Islands, separate the Bering Sea from the Pacific Ocean. Alaska has 43 of the nation's 53 historically active volcanoes.

The 2,500 km long Aleutian arc is a chain of large calc-alkaline, strato volcanoes with huge calderas. It is responsible for nearly all the historical volcanism of Alaska. Volcanoes on the Aleutian Islands, on the Alaska Peninsula, and in the Wrangell Mountains are part of the "Ring of Fire" that surrounds the Pacific Ocean basin.

There are more than 80 potentially active volcanoes in Alaska, about half of which have had at least one eruption since 1760, the date of the earliest written record of eruptions.

Morro Rock in California
Morro Rock is one of a line of ancient volcanic intrusions or sometimes called the Seven Sisters or The Nine Morros, depending on how many of the peaks are included in the count. They are a unique set of landmarks between the city of Morro Bay and the City of San Luis Obispo in California.

Morro Rock and indeed all of the Seven Sisters or The Nine Morros, are all volcanic necks, the rock that solidified in the "piping" of the volcano. It is a 576 feet tall plug of a volcano and is one of the series extending for many miles inland.

Heimaey, Iceland
Heimaey is the largest island in the Vestmannaeyjar group. An eruption began at Heimaey in 1973. A curtain of fire erupted 300-400 metres from Kirkjubair, the most easterly houses in the town. In six months a cone 225meter high was formed and 360 houses buried which is said to be a worst and impactable.

The 1973 eruption on the island of Heimaey is a classic example of the struggle between man and volcanoes. With a large effort the people of Iceland saved the town of Vestmannaeyjar and the country's most important fishing port.

Brothers volcano, New Zealand
Brothers is an active submarine caldera volcano in the Kermadec Arc, 400 km north east of White Island. It is an oval shape about 13 kilometer long and 8 kilometer wide. The 3 kilometer wide summit caldera has very steep walls 300-500 metres high.

The caldera floor is 1850m below sea level, and has a 350 meter high dome within it. The eruptive history, including that of any recent eruptions is still unknown. The crater walls reveal layers of dacite lava flows from which a later eruption has blown out a caldera.

Undersea volcanoes are not monitored by GNS Science, however they are a focus of current exploration. The spectacular minerals and marine life found around active undersea volcanoes may have economic and biotechnology benefits for New Zealand.

Kick ‘em Jenny, Caribbean Sea
Kick 'em Jenny is an underwater volcano 8 kilometer off the northern coast of the island of Grenada in the Caribbean. She has erupted at least 10 times since discovery in 1939 and has provided scientists with a rare opportunity to learn about the growth and gradual development of submarine volcanoes into islands.

The name Kick 'em Jenny is probably a reference to the force with which she erupted in 1939. Then, sizeable rocks were thrown as high as 300meter above the sea's level. Kick 'em Jenny is part of a chain of volcanoes known as the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc.

This arc is associated with a subduction zone at the eastern boundary of the Caribbean Plate. It is the southern-most active volcano in this arc, and is also the only active submarine volcano there. The summit of Kick 'em Jenny lay at 180-190meter below sea level.

Barren Island, Andaman Sea
Barren Island is an effusive as well as explosive stratovolcano in the Andaman Sea, northeastern Indian Ocean. It is the northernmost active volcano of the great Indonesian arc. The volcano is 3 km in diameter, has restricted public access, and no regular monitoring.

The volcano is known to have been active from 1787, when it produced basalt and basaltic andesite tephra and lava flows from a cinder cone located in a 2 km diameter caldera. The lavas flow into the sea through a breach in the caldera wall on the western side.

Barren Island is the only active volcano in the Indian Subcontinent, located 135 km east of Port Blair, in east Andaman Sea and is a part of Andaman Nicobar chain of islands in the Indian Ocean. The Barren Island lies on the inner arc extending between Sumatra and Myanmar. The volcano consists of a caldera open towards the west, with a central polygenetic vent enclosing at least 5 nested tuff cones.

South Pacific – Vailulu’u
Beneath the waves of the South Pacific lies a volcanic realm. It sits within the crater of a gigantic underwater mountain rising more than 4,500 meters (15,000 feet) from the ocean floor near the island of Samoa. The seamount, called Vailulu'u, is an active volcano, with a 2 mile wide (3.2 kilometer wide) crater.

The volcano rises up more than 16,400 feet from the seabed to within 2,000 feet of the ocean's surface. It is located 45 km east of Ta'u, the easternmost island of the Samoan chain. Vailulu'u is the youngest volcano in the Samoan volcanic chain and it contains an active hydrothermal system.

The volcano's base lies in 4800 m of water and summit is 590 m deep. The total volume of the volcano is 1050 cubic kilometer.

The Rumble III, New Zealand
The 2300meter Rumble III forms part of the Kermadec Ridge, a chain of 30 large underwater volcanoes that ascend from the ocean floor between New Zealand and Tonga. This area has the highest activity of submarine volcanoes. The Rumbles consist of five volcanoes, Rumble I to V.

The Rumble III seamount, the largest of the Rumbles seamount group along the South Kermadec Ridge, rises 2300 meter from the sea floor to within about 200 meter of the sea surface. Rumble III sits on the southern ridge of the Kermadec Arc of about 100 submarine volcanoes.

Rumble III has been the source of several submarine eruptions detected by hydrophone signals. Early surveys placed its depth at 117 meter, and later depths of about 200 meter, 140 meter, and 220 meter.