NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center tweeted: “You’ve heard of sharknado, now get ready for sharkcano. Kavachi Volcano in the Solomon Islands is home to two species of sharks. It is also one of the most active underwater volcanoes in the Pacific. “.
According to the Smithsonian’s global volcanism program, Kavachi, located about 15 miles south of Vangunu in the Solomon Islands, entered an eruptive phase last October.
Images taken by satellites, including NASA’s Landsat 9 Earth Observatory, showed the presence of discolored water feathers emitted by the submarine volcano for several days in April and May.
These plumes of overheated, acidic water typically contain particles, sulfur, and particles.
Large eruptions from Kavachi have also been observed in 2003, 2004, 2007 and 2014, during which periods of visible plumes of smoke and ash emerging from the ocean surface have been observed.
The volcano is named after a sea god of the people of the New Georgia Islands, and is locally known as “Rejo te Kavachi”, or “Kavachi Oven”.
It formed as a result of tectonic activity in the region: the volcano is located just 18 miles southwest of a subduction zone where the Australian plate sinks beneath the Pacific plate, partially melting to release magma that rises back to the surface.
The lava released by Kavachi tends to be basaltic (rich in iron and magnesium) to andesitic (with higher levels of silica) in content.
The volcano is known to suffer from so-called phreatomagmatic eruptions, in which the interaction of molten rock with water results in explosive eruptions that release a mixture of steam, ash, fragments of volcanic rock and incandescent bombs.
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In a 2016 article detailing their expedition, the researchers wrote: “Populations of gelatinous animals, small fish and sharks were observed within the active crater.”
This, they added, raised “new questions about the ecology of active underwater volcanoes and the extreme environments in which large marine animals may exist.”
It remains to be seen what impact the recent eruption will have had on the shark population that resided in Kavachi; however, given the frequency of volcanic eruptions, it is likely that sharks, if displaced, will return soon.
The full findings of the 2016 study were published in the journal Oceanography.