Posted on 07/29/2005 11:18:32 AM PDT by nickcarraway
One of the world’s most active volcanic areas is a relatively unknown part of the seabed between New Zealand and Tonga, and could trigger a devastating tsunami at any moment, ANU geologist Professor Richard Arculus warned today.
While relatively little money is available for ocean research, submerged volcanoes pose a significant threat to communities across the Pacific, Professor Arculus said.
“Over the last six years, research teams from Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and Germany have mapped a relatively narrow strip of ocean stretching about 2000 kilometres from the north of New Zealand to Tonga, and found 75 previously unknown volcanoes. Only 10 volcanoes were known in the area prior to this research,” he said.
“If any one of these underwater volcanoes either explosively erupts or collapses in a sudden movement, it would have a massive impact on the ocean, triggering a tsunami which could devastate communities across the region. There is evidence from new high-resolution images of these volcanoes that these events have happened many times in the past.
“Australia has just one research ship equipped for seabed surveys, the RV Southern Surveyor and it is required to perform many different types of research each year. It is ironic that we know far more about the topography of Mars and the Moon than about Earth, simply because much of our planet is covered in water.”
Professor Arculus said significantly more research would be required to pinpoint volcanoes that pose a significant risk of triggering a tsunami. He is one of few Australian researchers currently engaged in researching submerged volcanoes.
To help expand the ranks of researchers skilled at studying the underwater environment, ANU is launching an elite new degree next year, the Bachelor of Global and Ocean Sciences, to train a new generation of ocean scientists.
“The sea is the last great unexplored frontier on Earth. This research is important not just because it could help forewarn us of cataclysmic eruptions and tsunamis, but also because submerged volcanoes offer a direct channel to the Earth’s mantle, releasing gases and elements trapped since the planet’s early days.
“These underwater vents support Earth’s earliest life forms, anaerobic bacteria which thrive in the chemicals and reduced gases released. They also are significant markers of rare mineral resources, such as gold, copper and zinc.
“The underwater terrain around some of these volcanoes is similar to the settings that existed around Broken Hill and other important mining areas – it’s just that the rocks are many million years younger with ongoing activity.”
I think I see the agenda here.
Freeper: Scientists Are Totally Reactionary in Stating the Obvious
>>>could trigger a devastating tsunami at any moment
Yeah, and monkey's could fly out of my butt.
Jeez.
Give us money so we could see if this volcano that has never triggered a tsunami before MIGHT be able to trigger a tsunami that we could do nothing about if it DOES trigger a tsunami.
LOLOL......just show us the money.......and we'll prevent an undersea volcano from erupting.
That's not what the article says. It states there's evidence of a lot of tsunamis in the area previously.
Let's face it, if there'd been an article posted on FR on December 24th from a guy warning there could be a tsunami that could hit Sumatra, India, and Sri Lanka and kill hundreds of thousands of people and more money is needed to study the threat and look at warning systems, people such as yourself would have been mocking the article.
This is easy. The enviros should lobby the UN to make underwater volcanos illegal.
If a volcano decides to rise from the seabed there isnt a damned thing we can do about it except warn that the water is on the way. Why spnd a ton of money on it, fact is Yellowstone Park could produce a volcano tomorrow and cover half the earth with ash. Nothing we can do about it.
>>>That's not what the article says. It states there's evidence of a lot of tsunamis in the area previously
Oh, Pardon me. Let me rephrase. "Never in RECORDED HISTORY had a tsunami..."
There are systems already in place. This is a 'I am a scientist, give me money" scam.
Scientists: Submerged Volcanoes Pose Tsunami Threat
"Duh!"
There was a time scientists told us what we didn't already know. Now, they seem to be the last to find out...and still can't figure out they should put the insulation between the tank wall & outer skin, rather than spray it on the outside.
And a comet could strike earth and cause devestating earthquaks and tsunamis at any moment... and a hurricane could wipe out the eastern seaboard..... and F5 tornadoes could wipe out 1/2 a state... and it's been that way throughout history...
Yet, we're still here. Bloody Chicken Littles...
I have a book circa 1850 and it explains it quite well.
It's Bush's fault.
During our lifetimes, the Christmas tsunami is the only one of that devastation. Can we get another one this year? next? in 2 years? Well -- DUH! Of course we COULD.
I once heard that 80% of the population of the world lives within 50 miles of an ocean (or sea). It makes sense -- LA, NYC, Bombai -- as many of the worlds most populated areas sit directly on the water.
Will a tsunami devastate one of these cities this century? Doubtful. This millenium? Good chance.
Seattle has found huge tidal floods ever 300 years if I'm not mistaken. That makes sense as they are in a volcanic/earthquake zone.
Well -- I'm rabbling. But we are getting better at predicting catastrophy (Mt. St. Helens comes to mind) so hopefully we can save most of the residents with sufficient warnings.
Recorded history in that part of the world happens to be about 200 years old, or, about 1/20 millionth of the history of the earth.
Nothing like the Sumatran Tsunami in that portion of the Indian Ocean had happened in "recorded history" and Mt. St. Helens had never had a massive landslide and lateral blast "in recorded history."
That's the problem with geologic risk assessment; people have difficulty seeing beyond the microscopic span of their lifetimes. Anything they haven't personally witnessed doesn't seem real.
"It is ironic that we know far more about the topography of Mars and the Moon than about Earth, simply because much of our planet is covered in water.”
My friends and I promise to do our part in correcting that irony this weekend with a lot of drinking.
The incidence of such waves is frequent in geologic terms but rare in Human terms. :)
Bright side of things is that there's strong evidence that landslide tsunamis rapidly weaken with distance; they can be incredibly high close by, but lack the ability to propagage thousands of miles, one of the reasons most tsunami researchers think the whole ridiculously overhyped "Canary Island Volcano collapse would wipe out the East Coast" scenario is a crock.
You get a much more confused, complex system of waves from a landslide that dampen each other out over long distances.
I think that is the point. If you monitor, you can then warn.
With the recent tsunami, just being inland as little as a quarter mile would have meant the difference between life and death.
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