In November 2018, the largest underwater volcanic eruption occurred in the history of mankind. However, almost no one noticed!

November 11, seismologists recorded thousands of pushes with a maximum force of five points along with a strange

length of vibration. At the same time, the tremors rather quickly ended, and scientists recorded an atypical low-frequency signal approximately every 17 seconds for 20 minutes.

Then scientists believed that this phenomenon could beassociated with the movement of the mass of magma under the Earth. This hypothesis was advanced on the basis of GPS data, according to which Mayotte moved 40 months to 60 mm to the east and 30 mm to the south. The creators of the hypothesis believe that the movement of the archipelago and strange vibrations indicate the devastation of one giant magma repository under the island, but new studies are needed to test this assumption. HITEC told in detail about this story here.

Now scientists have partially confirmed the theory of the movement of magma under Mayotte - the island has already begun to sink about 1 cm per month - in the direction with the movement of magma.

We believe that the crisis of 2018 is associated with an eruption, despite the fact that we do not yet have direct observations. This may be a sea eruption with the largest volume ever recorded.

Pierre Briolle from the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris

Based on seismic measurements,The magma has shifted more than a cubic kilometer from the eruption point to about 28 km below the surface. Perhaps the magma could not reach the seabed, instead flowed into the surrounding sediments. In this case, the volcanic gas remained trapped inside the magma, so nothing was visible on the surface.

New research work has not yet beencriticized, and the authors behind it say that other scenarios are still possible. However, volcanic activity today is almost the only explanation.

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