Researchers are reporting that an underwater volcano that started erupting in 2018, not only created a new island in the Indian Ocean, but was also the largest underwater volcanic eruption ever recorded.
The eruption was also accompanied by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake.
The Daily Mail reports that the new island is located off the coast of southern Africa, in the straits between the continent and the world’s fourth largest island, Madagascar.
The island was produced after the volcano released 1.2 cubic miles of lava, resulting in a 2,690ft volcanic mountain that broke through the surface of the India Ocean.
This is not the first time we have heard of underwater volcanos. In 2017, researchers from Edinburgh University reported discovering the largest region of volcanic activity in the world on the ocean floor beneath the western Antarctic ice pack.
The Guardian reports that their discovery of 91 new volcanos is addition to the previously reported 47 volcanos underneath the Southern ice bed.
This leaves one to wonder if the extreme heat that can turn rock into molten lava could also be responsible for the melting ice in the Antarctic? READ: Scientists discover 91 volcanoes below Antarctic ice sheet
This may also have a Biblical significance:
I will show wonders in the heavens
and on the earth,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. (Joel 2:30-31 NIV)
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