In 2015, an international team of researchers sent robotic submersibles beneath the waves north of Guam. They had set out to study an area south and west of the Mariana Trench — the deepest groove in Earth’s oceans — and an arc of volcanoes, hoping to spy hidden hydrothermal vents. It was recently cooled lava, the product of the deepest underwater volcanic eruption ever recorded by scientists. The researchers reported their discovery last week in Frontiers in Earth Science. The extremely young age of the lava deposit offers scientists a window into the very beginnings of what happens when a volcanic outburst occurs beneath the seas.

Source: New York Times October 30, 2018 18:14 UTC