Massive Underwater Blast Created a Skyscraper-Sized Volcano in the Indian Ocean

Bright Side

A massive underwater explosion in the Indian Ocean has just revealed something incredible — a brand-new volcano rising from the seafloor, and it’s the size of a skyscraper. In this video, we’ll take you beneath the waves to see how this colossal structure formed almost overnight and why scientists are stunned by its speed and scale. You’ll learn what triggered the blast, how the ocean floor tore open, and what this means for the region’s future. The discovery challenges everything we thought we knew about volcanic growth underwater. And the craziest part? This new giant is still changing shape. Let’s explore the ocean’s latest—and most unexpected—mountain.  Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:00Back in 2018, the biggest active underwater eruption ever happened, at least the one that

00:09we could officially record. Scientists followed earthquakes that struck the area in the western

00:14Indian Ocean off Madagascar. Between 2018 and 2021, over 11,000 earthquakes struck a small

00:23island called Mayan between Madagascar and Mozambique. The strongest one had a magnitude

00:29of 5.9. Until then, this area had been pretty peaceful. There had only been two earthquakes

00:35recorded over 50 years. Along with regular earthquakes, there were also some unusual

00:41seismic hums, like earthquakes at pretty low frequencies, forming deep underground. People

00:47couldn't feel those hums at the surface, but researchers around the world discovered them

00:52and realized they were related to volcanic activity no one actually noticed coming.

00:57Something strange happened. That underwater eruption created a giant skyscraper-sized volcano.

01:04This new underwater volcano turned out to be around 1.5 times the height of One World Trade

01:10Center in New York, and almost 10 times bigger than the Statue of Liberty. The area where it

01:16appeared had been explored in 2014, but it was almost flat, peaceful, and empty back then.

01:22Now, there is an actual volcano nearly 8,500 feet below sea level. The volcano gets its magma from a

01:31super-profound reservoir located nearly 34 miles underground. It's the deepest reservoir of volcanic

01:38magma that we know about. The Earth has layers, and the middle one is kind of chunky. It's very much like

01:45peanut caramel filling many chocolates have. Research shows there are probably hunks of

01:51oceanic crust deep inside the Earth's liquid mantle. They're stuck there, creating large lumps in

01:58something that was supposed to be a smooth layer. Our planet has a rigid outer layer. It includes a hot

02:04upper mantle and cracked crust. The hot mantle moves and churns all the time, making the crust at the surface

02:11move too. This way, the oceanic crust dives into the depths and makes huge magma plumes go up toward

02:18the planet's surface. Scientists even found an ancient piece of the Pacific Ocean hundreds of miles

02:24underneath China. Those are the old remains of the Pacific seabed from long ago, and they were pulled

02:31downward below Earth's surface into the mantle transition zone. This rocky slab that used to be at

02:38the bottom of the ocean is made of the crust and some solid parts of the upper mantle. Most of the

02:44volcanic activity on our planet happens where we don't even see it, under the surface of the ocean.

02:50About 70% of all volcanic activity happens in the oceans, and mostly in the area of the South Pacific,

02:57with over 1,100 volcanoes squeezed into that area. Coastal cliffs, mountain changes, soils,

03:04and sediments that line valleys. These are only a small portion of the rocks on our planet.

03:10Oceans hide so much more deep down below the Earth's surface. In between the Earth's surface

03:16and its core is the mantle. It's a warm, thick layer of rock that moves and flows constantly.

03:22Some hundreds of miles below, there's a place where diamonds grow. As they form, they go through high

03:29temperatures and pressure, after which they eventually freeze. That way, when they arrive

03:34at the surface, scientists can explore their structure, find out how they formed, and understand

03:39better what's going on in the depths of our planet. Thanks to diamonds, they realized the mantle was very

03:46wet, and it possibly contained much more water than all the oceans on Earth. Our planet is eating up its

03:53own oceans. As its tectonic plates move, dive, and go beneath one another, they drag huge amounts of

04:00water into the Earth's interior. The water beneath the surface of our planet can help with developing

04:06magma and lubricate faults, which actually makes earthquakes more likely to happen. Water is actually

04:13stored in the minerals. It gets incorporated into the planet's crust when new oceanic plates form.

04:19They go through the process of bending and cracking as they grind under other plates, and huge amounts

04:25of water then go deep into the crust and mantle. Scientists research an area that's 18 miles under

04:31the surface. They realize these zones pull 3 billion teragrams, which is more than 2 billion pounds.

04:39Any ocean is like a whole new world. There are incredible sceneries below the surface. Magnificent

04:45waterfalls, lakes, and rivers. There are thick layers of salt beneath the seafloor, and rivers and lakes

04:52form because seawater goes through those layers and dissolves them, creating something that resembles

04:58pools. The dissolved salt makes the surrounding water denser. That water then settles there, which

05:04eventually forms underwater lakes or rivers. But there are also mountain chains, trenches, canyons.

05:11There's a canyon in the Bering Sea with more than 8,500 feet of vertical relief. This makes the Grand

05:18Canyon look way smaller than it is, since the underwater canyon is nearly 2,500 feet deeper.

05:26Deep parts of the ocean are really cold. The temperature of the water can be about 40 degrees,

05:31but at the bottom, water can get boiling hot. There are hydrothermal vents in the seafloor.

05:38Those are the hot springs located at the edges of tectonic plates. The water they release can reach

05:44a temperature of up to 750 degrees Fahrenheit. But the pressure at such depths is very intense.

05:51So intense, no human being can handle it. Still, it's the pressure that keeps the water from boiling.

05:58Ocean depth is on average 2.3 miles. Light waves can still enter at 3,280 feet,

06:05even though it's in a very small amount. So all the mysteries hidden below that point remain in total

06:11darkness. The actual illuminated part of the ocean goes until 600 feet. Even though the sun gives us

06:18light, most of our planet is dark all the time. It's all because of the oceans, covering over 70%

06:25of our planet. The loudest sound that came from an ocean, and of the loudest sounds ever recorded,

06:32came from an ice quake. It was so loud, researchers picked it up by sensors more than 3,000 miles

06:38away. There was a seismic activity that made frozen ground break down.

06:43The Antarctic ice sheet is bigger than the continental part of the United States and Mexico

06:48together. A big iceberg from Antarctica holds over 20 billion gallons of water, which could make a

06:55five-year water supply for a million people. Humans can generally drink sea ice, although we can't drink

07:01sea water. As time goes by and the ice ages, the brine trapped between ice crystals drains out.

07:09That way, ice becomes fresh enough to consume it. If all the ice sheets and glaciers we have on the

07:14Earth melted at the same time, the sea level would rise another 260 feet, which is just a little shorter

07:21than the Statue of Liberty, the height of a 26-story building. Clams live long enough to tell us more

07:28about ocean's past. Ancient mollusks can live for more than 500 years. To learn more about a tree,

07:35you can use its rings to see how old it is. To learn how old a mollusk is, you can examine its rings

07:41within the shell and tell. This is also how scientists get information about the ocean, climate, and

07:47what-so-ever. Clams can help take a look at what happened about a thousand years ago.

07:53The Earth doesn't have four but five oceans now. The new one, called the Southern Ocean,

07:59was officially recognized only a few months ago. It borders the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans,

08:05so scientists couldn't agree if it's really a new ocean or just part of the colder regions of these

08:11three. We don't only divide oceans on maps. Each has different conditions for unique marine species.

08:18For example, the Southern Ocean has leopard seals, orcas, minke whales, emperor penguins,

08:24and other animals that live in cold, icy seas. It's also home to krill, small creatures that look

08:30like shrimp and are food for many bigger animals that live there. Life on our planet started about

08:36three and a half billion years ago. I wasn't around then. It's still a mystery how and when exactly,

08:43but some theories say life could have first emerged in the depths of the ocean. A few years ago,

08:50scientists found microscopic tubes and filaments within rocks formed about four billion years ago.

08:56These rocks are fragments of ancient oceanic crust. Also, these tiny tubes and filaments are similar to

09:03microbes that can still be found on hydrothermal vents in deep parts of the ocean. The idea is

09:10these living cells found conditions to stay alive in tiny rocky pores inside the chimneys of those vents

09:16and started the amazing adventure of the evolution of life on our planet.

09:21An earthquake in Indonesia began in 1829 and lasted a mighty 32 years. It reached its climax in 1861 and hit

09:32a magnitude of around 8.5. It was caused by the tectonic plates below the island slowly clashing against

09:40each other. Researchers discovered that the quake had been building for some time after analyzing the

09:48coral in the area. They found it was being periodically exposed to the open air. That was caused by the

09:55gradual earthquake moving the land up and down. Scientists call these decades-long silent earthquakes slow

10:02slip events. A single lightning bolt can warm the air to around 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat makes the

10:11air expand quickly, creating a shock wave, or boom, which we know to be thunder. There are close to 3

10:19trillion trees on Earth. That translates to roughly around 422 trees for every person. Before humans, the

10:26number was nearer to 6 trillion. Almost 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, which on average is

10:34around 2.5 miles deep. 97% of Earth's volcanoes lie underwater, as well as the mid-ocean ridge,

10:43a massive mountain range that is over 40,000 miles long. Humans have mined around 190,000 tons of gold

10:52from the planet. Experts predict there is around 20% still left to be mined, but this figure is constantly

10:59changing. The world's largest active volcano is in Hawaii. Called Mauna Loa, it's over 2.5 miles above

11:08sea level. Given that most of it is underwater, the volcano's summit is a staggering 11 miles from its

11:14base. That's the same length as over 160 football fields. The highest ever recorded temperature on Earth

11:22was a sweltering 136 degrees Fahrenheit. It was recorded in El Azizia or modern-day Libya on September

11:3013, 1922. The lowest temperature was a chilling minus 129 degrees Fahrenheit recorded at Russia's

11:40Vostok station in 1983. Earth is the fifth largest planet in the solar system, behind Jupiter, Saturn,

11:48Uranus, and Neptune. It has a circumference of roughly 25,000 miles, and it would take the average

11:55person around 8,300 hours to walk around the face of the Earth. The separation between Earth's landmasses

12:02would make such a trek almost impossible, though. It takes 365.25 days for the Earth to orbit the Sun.

12:10Because our calendar years only have 365 days, we add an extra leap day every four years to make up for

12:18the difference. Russia is the largest country on the planet, with a total area of about 6.5 million

12:24square miles. It encompasses more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, but still has a

12:31relatively small population given its size. Earth is the only planet with one moon. Mercury and Venus have no moons,

12:40while every other planet has two or more. Earth is over 4 billion years old. Scientists calculate this by

12:49looking at the planet's oldest rocks, as well as meteorites that have crash-landed. They used meteorites

12:55as they were formed at the same time as Earth, when the solar system was forming. The ground we walk on is

13:02basically recycled. The planet's rock cycle turns igneous rocks to sedimentary ones, then transforms

13:09those into metamorphic rocks, and back again. Like Earth, our moon also experiences earthquakes. They're

13:17less common and intense than the ones we have, and are caused by tidal stresses. A tidal stress is

13:23basically the relationship between the gravitational pull of the moon on the Earth and that of the Earth on

13:29the Moon. Despite being the fifth-largest continent, Antarctica holds 70% of the planet's fresh water and

13:37about 90% of its ice. Bangkok is the most visited city in the world, boasting 23 million visitors in 2019

13:46alone. Paris, London, Dubai, and Singapore make up the other cities in the top five. The lowest layer of

13:55Earth's atmosphere is called the troposphere and is the reason we have weather. Sunlight heats the planet's

14:02surface, which causes warm air to rise up to the troposphere. This air then expands and cools as the air

14:09pressure decreases and sinks down where it is then warmed by the Earth again. Coral reefs are the largest living

14:17structures on the planet, with some even being visible from space. Coral reefs hold the most species per area of any of

14:25Earth's ecosystems, even more than rainforests. Earth got its name around 1,000 years ago, and it comes

14:33from the German word meaning the ground, but there's no evidence to show who actually named it. Of all the

14:39planets, Earth is also the only one which is not named after a Greek or Roman deity. The deepest point of the

14:47ocean is the Mariana Trench. It's a whopping seven miles below sea level. Coastlines cover about 20% of

14:55U.S. land, but are home to more than 50% of the U.S. population. The Earth isn't actually a sphere. It's more

15:03like a squished ball that bulges at the equator. The bulge is caused by the force of the Earth spinning,

15:09which makes the north and south poles slightly flat. The Earth spins on its axis, which is basically an

15:17imaginary straight line. Earth has seasons because the axis is tilted, causing the Sun's rays to hit

15:23different parts of the planet more directly, depending on the time of year. If the Sun was as tall as a

15:30standard door, the Earth would be around the size of a nickel. The Earth's rate of rotation is gradually

15:37decreasing. It's happening so slowly that it would take as much as 140 million years for the length of

15:43a day to increase to 25 hours. The biggest animal on Earth is the Antarctic blue whale. It can reach

16:01lengths of 100 feet and weigh up to 400,000 pounds, which is around the same as 33 elephants. The

16:08temperature at the center of the Earth is around the same as the surface of the Sun at almost 10,000

16:14degrees Fahrenheit. Earth is around 10,000 times older than humans. Earth is around 4.5 billion years old,

16:22whereas humans have been around for at most 450,000 years.

16:26There are around 34,000 known species of fish. The actual number is way higher though,

16:33as a whopping 95% of our oceans still haven't been explored. America's Route 66 is longer than the

16:41journey to the Earth's core. The distance to the core is roughly 2,000 miles. Route 66 is almost 2,500

16:49miles. The Earth is made up of three main components, the crust, the mantle, and the core, which is divided into

16:56the outer core and the inner core. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species

17:03on the planet. Out of this, between 1 to 2 million of these species are animals. But roughly 86% of land

17:11species and 91% of fish have yet to be discovered by humans. Ancient astronomers used to think that the

17:19Earth was the center of the universe. For 2,000 years, they believed the Earth to be static, while other

17:25bodies traveled in orbit around us. In 1543, Copernicus published his sun-centered model of the solar

17:32system. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. The density varies across its different crusts,

17:39but the planet's average density is just over 3 ounces per cubic inch. Mount Everest is the highest point on

17:47the planet. Its peak is the highest altitude above sea level, at around 5.5 miles. Each year, one

17:54septillion crystals of snow fall on Earth. That's a trillion trillion snowflakes. Snow covers about 31% of

18:03Earth's land area each year. Of Earth's water, only around 3% is fresh water. The other 97% is salted. Of that 3%,

18:12about 2% is frozen in ice and glaciers. So, less than 1% of the planet's fresh water is actually in lakes,

18:21rivers, and underground. The world's largest inland body of water, or lake to us normal people,

18:28is the Caspian Sea. It has an area of 140,000 miles squared. The world's deepest lake is Lake Baikal

18:36in Russia and is 5,300 feet deep. Earth's atmosphere is roughly 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen,

18:44with small amounts of water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases. No other planet is believed to have

18:51this much oxygen, which explains why Earth is the only planet where life has been discovered, so far.

18:58Apart from the Moon, there are two asteroids in co-orbital orbits with Earth, sometimes called Earth's

19:04second moon. 3753 Kruthni is an asteroid that looks like it's following the Earth in orbit,

19:10but it's actually following its own path around the Sun. 2002 AA29 is another asteroid which makes a

19:18horseshoe orbit around the Earth that draws it close to the planet every 95 years.

19:24That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it

19:30with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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