Scientists scanning the unfathomed Pacific seafloor have discovered a gargantuan mountain lurking some5,100 meters(16,700 ft ) beneath the sea open .
The loom seamount rise 1,100 measure ( 3,600 foot ) from the bottom of the ocean story near the Johnson Atoll , 300 kilometers ( 186 mil ) southeastward of the uninhabited Jarvis Island .
Seamountsare undersea mountains forged by volcanic activity . They are generallyextinct volcanoesfound near architectonic collection plate bound , but they can also be found in the middle of plate at hotspot areas . While Everest may hold the record for the high natural elevation on Edwin Herbert Land , the tallest mountain in the cosmos is really a seamount . Hawaii’sMauna Kea , a dormant volcano , is10,200 meters(33,476 ft ) improbable when measured from pedestal to peak ; Everest is 8,850 meter ( 29,000 ft ) . Only 4,000 metre ( 13,100 ft ) of Mauna Kea is above ocean level , however .
The discovery was made by a team run by NOAA andUniversity of New Hampshirescientist James Gardner . The researchers were using a 12 - kHz multibeam echo sounder aboard a U.S. Navy oceanographic research ship to create detailed maps of the seafloor of this largely unexplored area . concord to Gardner , they materialize upon the seamount late at night on August 13 , when it appeared completely “ out of the blue ” less than five Clarence Shepard Day Jr. into their expedition . The researchers have since care to map the cone-shaped mountain in its integrality .
“ These seamounts are very vulgar , but we do n’t know about them because most of the places that we go out and map have never been mapped before , ” Gardner said in anews vent . Furthermore , most of the survive maps of the seafloor have been generated using broken - solution satellite data which ca n’t pick up feature like this , despite their size of it .
For now , the likely impact of this new discovery remain unclear . Seamounts are oftenbiological hotspotsthat host an unbelievable array of marine life , but this one is far too deep to be able-bodied to furnish fat fisheries . what is more , its depth mean that it likely wo n’t be a navigational endangerment for sub .
“ It ’s probably 100 million years old,”said Gardner , “ and it might have something in it we may be concerned in 100 year from now . ”
[ ViaUNHandLive Science ]
