New active volcanoes found

[MotherBear]

Perhaps this should have gone in the Volcanoes and earthquakes thread, but as news articles have been banished down here, I'll keep it here unless instructed otherwise.

New active volcanoes under sea
By MATTHEW TORBIT - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 23 May 2007

Two underwater volcanoes, one at least 1000 metres high, have been found bubbling in waters off New Zealand's coast by scientists surveying the area.

Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research and Auckland University have spent the past 23 days on the research vessel Tangaroa investigating around Raoul and Macauley islands, largest of the Kermadec group.

The newly discovered submerged caldera volcanoes were found off Raoul Island, 1000 kilometres northeast of New Zealand.

Voyage leader and Niwa marine geologist Ian Wright said both vents had craters about 4 kilometres across, about a fifth of the size of Mt Ruapehu's crater diameter. One crater was extremely deep, about 1000m from the rim to the floor.

Both volcanoes appeared young, probably thousands of years old, but it would take laboratory analysis of sediments to accurately assess their age, he said.

"We focused on Macauley and Raoul (islands) because they represent the more explosive and potentially destructive volcanoes in the Kermadec Arc."

The Kermadec Arc, on the Pacific Ring of Fire, has been the source of vigorous and explosive volcanic activity over the past several thousand years. Its most northerly island, Raoul, erupted suddenly in March 2006, killing Conservation Department worker Mark Kearney, 33.

As well as the new volcanoes, tests showed at least six eruptions in the past 6300 years.

From here .