Tamu massif
| Tamu massif | ||
|---|---|---|
 Bathymetric map of the Tamu massif |
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| height | 4400 m | |
| location | northwest pacific | |
| Coordinates | 33 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ N , 158 ° 0 ′ 0 ″ E | |
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| Type | Submarine volcano | |
| rock | basalt | |
| Age of the rock | 130–145 million years | |
The Tamu Massif is a 30 km thick accumulation ( pile up ) oceanic crust , which is unusual, since the thickness of the crust is km in the sea generally only around the eighth How this thickening came about is unclear.
It is not, as previously assumed, an underwater shield volcano , as the barcode- like striped pattern of geomagnetic polarity reversal that is typical for it is missing, as is the case, for example, with the nearby Ori massif, which is such an underwater volcano .
Surname
The name Tamu stands for the initials of Texas A&M University , where the discoverer of the massif, Professor William Sager, taught at the time.
expansion
The majority of the massif has an area of around 450 km × 650 km and covers an area of 292,500 km². The slope is only ½ ° to 1 °, which is not unusual for submarine shield volcanoes. (Note: echo sounder diagrams, such as the bathymetry map above, are extremely exaggerated so that such massifs can be recognized at all.)
location
The Tamu massif is located in the northwestern Pacific , about 1,600 km east of Japan . It is part of the Shatsky Rise , a chain of deep-sea mountains formed by a series of undersea volcanic eruptions 130 to 145 million years ago.
literature
- William W. Sager, Jinchang Zhang, Jun Korenaga, Takashi Sano, Anthony AP Koppers, Mike Widdowson, John J. Mahoney: An immense shield volcano within the Shatsky Rise oceanic plateau, northwest Pacific Ocean. In: Nature Geoscience . Vol. 6, 2013, pp. 976-981, doi: 10.1038 / ngeo1934 .
Web links
- Brian Clark Howard: New Giant Volcano Below Sea Is Largest in the World . In: National Geographic Daily News, September 5, 2013
- Scientists Confirm Existence of Largest Single Volcano On Earth . In: ScienceDaily from September 5, 2013 (English)
- Tamu Massif - Researchers find gigantic volcano in the Pacific . In: Spiegel Online from September 6, 2013
Individual evidence
- ↑ A fresh look at the underwater mountain Tamu Massif shows that it no longer holds the record, since it may not be a volcano at all. In: National Geographic. July 15, 2019, accessed December 3, 2019 .