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Sharkcano: NASA captures moment underwater volcano home to mutant sharks erupts

NASA captured the moment an underwater volcano home to mutant sharks erupted. (NASA)
NASA captured the moment an underwater volcano home to mutant sharks erupted. (NASA)

NASA has captured the moment an underwater volcano home to mutant sharks erupted.

Satellite data from May 14 shows a plume of discoloured water erupting from the submarine volcano.

The Kavachi Volcano, just south of Vangunu Island, has earned the nickname Sharkcano, as it’s home to sharks that have adapted to living in its hot, acidic environment.

While it may sound like a silly spin-off to the comedy-horror film series Sharknado, the Sharkcano is spookily real–and could offer us insight on how marine animals can adapt to climate change.

What is the Kavachi Volcano?

The Kavachi Volcano in the Solomon Islands is one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the Pacific, according to NASA. It erupts early continuously, but prior to this month’s eruption, other large eruptions occurred in 2014 and 2007.

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The plumes of superheated, acidic water contain rock fragments and sulphur, and the volcano also produces lava. It has even created ephemeral islands–sometimes up to a kilometre long–but they’re eroded by the waves.

The summit of the underwater volcano is around 20 metres below sea level, while its base is around 1.2 kilometres deep.

How do mutant sharks live in the underwater volcano?

In 2015, a scientific expedition found that two species of sharks–the scalloped hammerhead shark and the silky shark–live in the submerged crater, earning the volcano the nickname “Sharkcano.”

As well as sharks, gelatinous animals and small fish were also found in the volcano. Scientists believe that these animals have adapted to thrive in the hot, acidic environment–which leads them to wonder how these animals may adapt to human-induced ocean warming.

The official magazine of the Oceanography society published the report on the expedition and said that a further understanding of the animals that thrive in this kind of an environment could “offer new insights into the evolutionary history of marine animals.”

The article says that the fact that the animals can live in extreme conditions “poses new questions centred on the resiliency of marine animals to rapid changes in their environments,” and proposes the question of whether these species could “have a greater chance of surviving human-induced changes to ocean chemistry and periods of increased submarine volcanism on a global scale.”