Sunday, June 22, 2008
Two underwater volcanoes have been discovered by Australian scientists
Australian scientists have discovered two underwater volcanoes in an ocean basin between Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.The volcanoes are 50 kilometres wide and almost 4,000 metres tall and are releasing gases containing lead, zinc, copper and gold.
Mining companies are already looking at ways to retrieve the valuable metals.The scientists were mapping the sea floor near Fiji, when they discovered the first volcano and geology professor, Richard Arculus, says the second was stumbled upon by accident."
Just by pure chance, one of the engineers had a chronic back problem and it was decided to take him to Samoa, basically get him off the ship and get him into some other medical care," he said. "And we set off for Samoa and as we sailed east of our target area, we came across another volcano."
Mining companies are already looking at ways to retrieve the valuable metals.The scientists were mapping the sea floor near Fiji, when they discovered the first volcano and geology professor, Richard Arculus, says the second was stumbled upon by accident."
Just by pure chance, one of the engineers had a chronic back problem and it was decided to take him to Samoa, basically get him off the ship and get him into some other medical care," he said. "And we set off for Samoa and as we sailed east of our target area, we came across another volcano."
# posted by kevin : 6:50 PM
