Researchers in the Arctic have announced a discovery: an underwater mud volcano that poses no immediate threat.
Scientists believe that it was formed inside another crater – larger and older than the new one, but with the same dirty slurry flowing from its mouth.
The mud volcano was named Borealis. It is located 130 kilometers south of Bear Island in the Barents Sea and is only the second mud volcano to be discovered in Norwegian waters.
The Borealis Basin is a hole seven meters wide and more than two and a half meters high, which constantly spews a turbid liquid rich in methane.
Beneath the volcano is a large crater about 300 meters wide and 25 meters deep. Scientists say that this formation was formed as a result of an eruption 18,000 years ago – so long ago that it happened even before the appearance of people.
The volcanic slopes have created their own ecosystems in which the creatures feed on the carbonate crust formed as a result of the consumption of methane by microorganisms. Scientists observed anemones, starfish, sea spiders and crustaceans, as well as sponges and corals. WORLD24 .
Read the Latest World News Today on The Eastern Herald.
