Earth’s largest volcano discovered under the Pacific Ocean

The Earth’s largest volcano and possibly the second largest in the solar system has been discovered at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It covers a area roughly equivalent to the British Isles or the state of New Mexico, the volcano named as Tamu Massif, is located about 1,609 km east of Japan.

Tamu Massif is the largest feature of Shatsky Rise, an underwater mountain range formed 130 to 145 million years ago by the eruption of several underwater volcanoes. Tamu Massif, which became inactive within a few million years after it was formed, covers an area of about 310,798 square kms.

The largest active volcano on Earth, Hawaii’s Mauna Loa is just 5,179 square kilometers, or by comparison just 2 % of the size of Tamu Massif. Also, Olympus Mons on Mars, the largest known volcano in our solar system, is only about 25 per cent larger by volume than Tamu Massif.