Scientists find strange underwater volcano that 'looks like a Bundt cake'

By Sascha Pare published about 9 hours ago

The Saildrone Surveyor mission discovered the unnamed, 3,200-foot-tall formation in February while mapping the seafloor off the coast of California.



The strange Bundt-cake shape could be the result of either intense and rapid volcanic activity or of marine detritus piling up on the extinct volcano, experts say. (Image credit: Saildrone/NOAA (screenshot from saildrone on YouTube))

A strange underwater mountain towering above the seafloor "like a Bundt cake" has been discovered off the coast of California by an uncrewed sailing ship mapping the North Pacific, according to the mission team.

The unnamed, 3,200 foot (975 meter) tall formation falls just short of the required size for a seamount — at least 3,300 feet (1,000 m) above the surrounding seafloor, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(opens in new tab) (NOAA). Nonetheless, oceanographers have referred to the feature as such because, like other seamounts, it is an underwater mountain with steep sides rising from the seafloor and the remnant of an extinct volcano.

Underwater mountains formed by volcanic activity sometimes poke through the ocean surface and give rise to islands, such as Hawaii. But this one is entirely submerged, with a crowning crater still visible 1,200 feet (366 m) below sea level.

Apart from its crater, this strange seamount looks nothing like a volcano. "Typically seamounts have sloped sides, like Mount Fuji," Aurora Elmore(opens in new tab), program manager for NOAA's Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, told SFGATE(opens in new tab). "But what's interesting about this one is that it's really steep. It rises from the bottom of the seafloor with a tower shape."

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https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/scientists-find-strange-underwater-volcano-that-looks-like-a-bundt-cake