Nationalgeographic.com: On May 10, 2018, a mysterious geological beast sleeping beneath the tiny island of Mayotte suddenly began to show signs of awakening. On a small piece of land, sandwiched between Africa and Madagascar, thousands of earthquakes of different strengths thundered in a short period of time, the most significant of which reached the M5.8 force. It was the largest earthquake recorded in the history of the region.
Further, in the midst of this strange seismic swarm, a low-frequency underground rumble swept across the world, forcing the arrows of the sensors to jump at a distance of 11,000 miles and confusing all scientists.
And only now, it seems, researchers have found the reason for all this: the birth of an underwater volcano 30 miles (50 km) off the east coast of Mayotte. About two miles underwater, the small nascent volcano extends nearly half a mile in height and reaches three miles across.
The discovery came as a result of a French multipurpose geological mission to better understand the origins of the seismic swarm. This work, coordinated by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), included sonar surveys from the Marion Dufresne spacecraft and was led by Nathalie Feyet of the Institute for Planetary Physics in Paris and Stéphane Jorry of the French research institute IFREMER.
The data are still preliminary and many questions remain unanswered as scientists work to analyze their findings and publish research results only in a peer-reviewed journal. However, on May 16, the team issued a short joint press release announcing the new volcano and its likely connection to a strange swarm of earthquakes.
Promotional video:
“In light of this discovery, the government is fully mobilized to continue and deepen our understanding of this exceptional phenomenon and take the necessary steps to classify and prevent any risks it poses,” the agency said in a statement.
Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at Imperial College who has previously analyzed strange seismic events in Mayotte, adds that the announcement offers some much-needed clarity for the islanders, who have been under stress from months of incessant tremors for almost a year.
Geological mystery
Mayotte is part of the Comoro Archipelago, a chain of volcanic islands northwest of Madagascar. While volcanism in the region is not unheard of, Mayotte has been silent for a long time, with the last eruption there over 4,000 years ago. But since May last year, geological activity in Mayotte has gained momentum. Since the swarm began, the tiny island has been shaken by more than 1,800 earthquakes in excess of 3.5. The land itself also appears to be moving, drifting 0.6 inches eastward and down about 0.4 inches each month.
In November, strange low-frequency noises began to spread around the world, lasting approximately 20 minutes. This is too low a frequency for humans to sense it and only one person noticed these curious waves: the seismologist-enthusiast @matarikipax was the only one who noticed the unusual zigzags on the displays of the USGS seismograms and posted them on Twitter, attracting the attention of seismologists around the world. …
Even then, experts concluded that earthquakes and a strange seismic signal were probably associated with the movement of molten rock. Perhaps the earthquake swarm was the result of injecting magma into faults between rocks, and the low-frequency hum was caused by waves resonating in the magma chamber.
The link to volcanic activity was further confirmed by preliminary research published on EarthArxiv in February 2019. This study recorded a swarm of seismic events inside a huge magma chamber, the emptying of which could be the largest ever documented underwater volcanic event.
However, despite the value of the study, the means of its monitoring were very limited, and nothing definite could be said about the hypothetical displacement of the plume, about the new volcano and its eruption only on the basis of the massive movement of epicenters.
Pregnant land
And so, on May 16, 2019, the French mission issued its long-awaited press release, and Robin Lacassin of the Institute for Physics of the World in Paris (one of the organizations involved in the study) posted a couple of geological-mined images on Twitter.
One of the images shows a newborn volcano, visible with acoustic imaging, which works like a dolphin using sonar to sense its surroundings.
"It's almost like a pregnancy ultrasound … only with big errors," geophysicist Lucille Bruhat writes in a tweet on the image.
The image shows not only the volcano itself, but even a winding plume that rises through the water column 1.2 miles from the top of the volcanic cone. However, the composition of the plume is still unclear, although it is likely that the sound waves are reflected from the ash-like glass fragments ejected by the volcano,”writes Helen Robinson, Ph. D. in applied volcanology at the University of Glasgow.
Another image shows a series of jagged structures on the seabed that appear to form a clear path to the new volcanic center:
“It is possible that the volcanic center of the island has shifted away from the island itself,” muses Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at Imperial College. Still, Stephen notes that more data is needed to confirm this mechanism of volcanic formation.
“There is an odd similarity between this new structure and Hawaii's undersea volcano, Loihi, growing south of Kilauea,” adds Ken Rubin, a volcanologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa who specializes in underwater eruptions.
Simple and exciting
Now volcanologists have a question: how exactly is the new volcanic activity related to seismicity, including the strange low-frequency signal that appeared last November?
“This is the million dollar question,” says Hicks.
Research presented at a recent meeting of the European Geosciences Union showed that the long low frequency signal noted in November was not the only event of its kind in Mayotte. In fact, this is a common feature for the entire swarm of ongoing earthquakes on the island. But scientists cannot yet tell what exactly is causing the low frequency signals and the seismic swarm. The research group itself has so far refused to comment on this story in any way, and while they are preparing their data for publication.
“We still have a lot of research to do,” writes Mark Tingey, a geomechanics specialist at the University of Adelaide, tweeting colleagues. “Nevertheless, our findings represent an excellent opportunity for scientists around the world to understand and study what is most likely the birth of a new underwater volcano.”
However, this work is of greatest importance to the inhabitants of the island. Uncertainty related to the source of the earthquakes and the lack of an adequate explanation by volcanologists have generated insane rumors and speculation among confused locals, including wild theories about the awakening of Cthulhu.
Now all these crazy speculations are finally academically refuted, and the recent scientific explanation instead of fear brings a new wave of emotions of charm for something incredible is happening in the bowels of the Earth near the island.
Editorial comment
The charm of the academicians by the underwater volcano looks rather amusing, because sitting in the armchairs “in Paryzhi” they are a little far from the problems of local residents. Meanwhile, it’s one thing when people suspect that Godzilla lives in a den next to the island and will soon come out to eat someone, but it’s a completely different thing when an underwater volcano explodes 50 km from the island and even a small tsunami will wash away everyone there at once. … However, this is not the most important thing.
As our readers will remember, with the beginning of the eruption in Hawaii last May, we put forward a rather insane, at first glance, theory about the global displacement of mantle plumes caused by the desynchronization of the Earth's core rotation.
The planet, as geologists think, somewhat resembles an egg, where the lithosphere is like a shell, the mantle is like a protein, and the core is like a yolk. That is, this is not a rigid mechanical system at all and the speed of rotation of its elements as a result of some processes may become different.
As a result, the mantle begins to move slower / faster than the lithosphere and drags mantle plumes along with it, as a result of which their tops shift. And at the points of projection of these peaks, new volcanoes appear - which is happening now in Mayotte.
In addition, as we also reminded earlier, there is the so-called geological theory of antipodes, according to which mantle plumes (and even earthquakes) are projected onto the opposite side of the planet (to the antipode point) and all processes in the antipodes occur synchronously.
The Hawaiian Islands are the antipode of Mayotte. That is, everything that happens in Mayotte also happens in Hawaii. And since a new underwater volcano has been officially confirmed in Mayotte, it simply cannot be missing in Hawaii. And since he is there, sooner or later he will explode.
And now we read Express.co.uk for May 21, 2019. It turns out that in California there is now panic in the circles of believers, because a certain "crazy pastor" Perry Stone has been unable to sleep for several weeks in a row, because he has the same nightmare: an explosion in the Pacific Ocean and, as a result, a huge tsunami washing away California … And this poor pastor runs through all the newspapers and TV channels to get the message, but he is sent everywhere to a well-known address. So we are following the development of events.
PS (folklore): Flood. Everyone is trying to get to a dry place, only one old man sits in a chair. "Hurry here!" - shout to him from the last truck. “God will help me,” the old man calmly answers and prays. And the water is getting higher, it already floods the room. The last boat comes to the house. They shout from her: "Jump here, there is one more place left!" - “God will help me” - the old man calmly answers and climbs onto the roof. But the water got there too. A helicopter hovers over the house, a rope ladder is thrown off it: “Cling! This is the last chance!”, But the old man still says:“God will help me”. Then a wave came and washed away the old man. In paradise, he meets God and reproachfully says: “God, I counted on you so! Why did you leave me in trouble? " - "Idiot! You cretin! Who on earth sent you a truck, boat and helicopter ?!”