Earth's Widest Volcano Found Underwater
A 650 kilometer-wide volcano is found beneath the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean by geophysicists the width of the volcano is about 7108 football fields. This mega volcano has been dormant for the past 140 million years. This shows that the Earth can support larger amounts of magma than previously thought, it also is setting records in the universe, passing up the previous record holder Olympus Mons located on Mars being 625 km wide. While not as tall as Olympus Mons it is similar to other volcanoes found on Mars giving us some more easily accessible way to study these monsters. The Tamu Massif has been previously known as being a part of the three mountains that make up the underground mountain range called the Shasky Rise. The mountains are found to the east of Japan and are approximately 1500 km wide and are formed near a junction in the tectonic plates.
The Volcano had originally been thought to be multiple volcanoes all contributing to the large solidified lava mass that is Tamu Massif. The Islands of Hawaii and Iceland were created this same way. William Sager, a marine biologist, and his colleagues used an air gun to send seismic waves to the volcano and and monitored the reflections. The team was shocked to find out that there was a central lava vent meaning that this previously thought underwater mountain had become the widest volcano in the universe. "From whatever angle you look at it, the lava flows appear to com from the centre of this thing," says Sager. What I found most fascinating is that we knew about the huge volcano on the surface of Mars before we knew about this huge volcano here on Earth.
Otters: Cute Little Climate Warriors
Otters are being revealed as being a very crucial animal to Earth's ecosystem, otters have positive effects on sea grass population. Why is sea grass so important? Well, sea grass absorbs carbon dioxide in the air and in our water helping to lower the impact of climate change, it also acts as a sanctuary for fish to breed in helping protect stability of ecosystems. This discovery was found after PNAS reintroduced sea otters to the Elkhorn Slough in Monterey Bay, the otters had been hunted to near-extinction during the late 1800's and the 1900's, the otters had a very good impact on the populations of sea grass in the nutrient-rich water. Otters help increase the population of sea grass through eating the crabs that would be normally feasting on the sea grass which allows the sea grass to then flourish. A similar study was completed but with kelp forests, the otters would eat the sea urchins, which can be known to destroy kelp forest, then allowing kelp to grow freely and reduce carbon dioxide from the water and air. Scientist also removed otters from the ecosystem to truly test if it them impacting the increase in carbon dioxide reducing plant life and indeed when the otters were removed the amount of carbon dioxide reducing plants plummeted. Otter populations are not only being directly reduced by humans but also indirectly through killer whales now hunting sea otters. This is believed to be caused by whaling after WWII where populations of baleen whales, killer whales usual food source, plummeted leaving killer whales to search for a new source of food. Otters are a keystone species as well as as umbrella species, that means that they are a key point in the ecosystem and they also help through being an target to protect which then protects all the other species in the ecosystem. Otters can truly be a turning point for climate change, with a face that's easy to get behind they can help to change the world.
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