If a volcano is under water, how long does it take to surface?
Daniel
Tedeschi
Hi Daniel,
For underwater volcanoes, the time it takes to break the surface depends
completely on how deep the water is. Here in Hawai'i we have a volcano called
Lo'ihi that is off the coast of the big island. The water depth there is almost
5 kilometers, pretty deep. Lo'ihi is about 1 kilometer from breaking the
surface so it has already come a long way. Nobody knows how long it will take
for Lo'ihi to become the next Hawaiian island but it will probably be at least
another 10,000 years.
In other parts of the world where the ocean is not so deep, volcanoes can break
the surface much quicker. Volcanoes probably never go from nothing to breaking
the surface in one eruption. When you read about a new island forming from a
volcano, almost certainly there was already an undersea volcano already there
and it was just the most recent eruption that allowed it to finally break the
surface. In all the cases that I know of where "new" volcanoes broke the
surface, it was at locations where the water was known to be very shallow
already--because the volcano was already almost to the surface. In a number of
cases a volcano has broken the surface, stopped erupting, been eroded by waves,
erupted to the surface, been eroded, and on and on. Once a volcano does become
an island it isn`t guaranteed to stay.
I hope this helps answer your question.
Sincerely,
Scott Rowland, University of Hawaii
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