Ocean Floor and Violent Submarine Volcanoes - as part of the news and politics series by GeoBeats.

Volcanoes are arguably the most powerful force of nature. Most of the world’s volcanoes are submarine or underwater volcanoes. In fact, about 80 percent of the world’s volcanic eruptions happen under the surface of the ocean. Because these volcanoes are underwater, their activity and the frequency of their eruptions is hard to study and measure with conventional methods.

Scientists are just starting to realize how unstable the ocean floor really is. A team of Oxford University scientists studying submarine volcanoes used sonar technology to create a live map of the topography of an active volcano in the southwest Pacific Ocean. The research revealed that these volcanoes are capable of drastically changing the map of the seabed in a matter of days.

The sonar map showed that the volcano had collapsed in some areas by up to 19 meters, and had grown in other areas by up to 72 meters. This drastic instability in the ocean floor was caused by underwater volcanic eruptions. Any major fluctuations in the seabed can potentially cause tsunamis. Understanding the dynamic movements of these submarine volcanoes is critical in understanding the different causes of tsunamis and possibly minimizing the potential for enormous damage to coastal towns and cities.