A massive subterranean tree-like plume that feeds many volcanoes on Earth has been mapped out by an international team of scientists, and this plume can be Titanic in size.
Hidden underground, the enormous plume appears to egress to Réunion - a tiny French island in the Indian Ocean that also happens to host one of the world's most active volcanoes, Piton de la Fournaise, or “peak of the furnace."
While the existence of this plume was hypothesised earlier, scientists had never been able to actually see it seismologically - until an international team led by Oxford University's Maria Tsekhmistrenko managed to create a map of this massive "volcanic tree" via the data collected by geological "telescopes" that detect the planet's vibrations.
“People have had a longer history and an easier time actually looking up at the stars,” University of Cambridge seismologist Sanne Cottaar told Quanta Magazine. “Looking down has actually been quite challenging.”
The map was visualised by the magazine into a detailed 3D model.
The massive underground tree does not only feed Piton de la Fournaise but also a handful of other volcanoes located some 3,000 kilometres away in East Africa. Additionally, the Titanic-sized plume also seems to be fuelling the fire of the Hawaiian volcanoes, that are nowhere near the well-known Ring of Fire - a region in the Pacific Ocean that feeds the majority of Earth's active volcanoes.
Around 65 million years ago, the massive plume ignited the area called the Deccan Traps. Located beneath what is now India, the area had enough seismological potential to cover 1.5 million square kilometres of land.