More than a year, seismologists puzzled over the «rumble» that came from the depths of the Earth.
Scientists now believe that the sounds coinciding with the birth of a new underwater volcano in the Indian ocean, was caused by the emptying of the magmatic reservoir.
«A few months after the sounds ranged around the Earth, off the coast of the island of Mayotte, located between Madagascar and Mozambique in the Indian ocean, a new born submarine volcano,» reports LiveScience.
In a new study by an international research team from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam (Germany), has shed light on the fact that the process of the birth of the volcano was «deep inside the Earth before and during the formation of a new volcano.»
The first sign was the accumulation of thousands of earthquakes in may 2018 about Mayotte, one of which was a magnitude of 5.9 points. It was the strongest impetus ever found in the region where there is usually no earthquakes, according to LiveScience.
«Incredible seismic hum», some of them lasting up to 40 minutes, started recorded worldwide in November 2018. Studying them, scientists have discovered more than 400 buzzing signals, said seismologist Simon česká LiveScience.
According to the study, the birth happened in two stages. First, one of the magmas flowed diagonally upwards, causing the earthquake which in fact had guided for illumination of the flow of magma. Once this channel is opened, the magma just spilled out of the tank. As a result, the Mayotte sank nearly 20 cm, and the area above the reservoir is weakened and sagged, creating small fissures and cracks, according to LiveScience.
A mysterious hum is in fact evidence of «dramatic movement of molten rock before a volcanic eruption».
