SCIENTIST SAY EARTH LARGEST VOLCANO HAS BEEN FOUND


-- Move over, Mauna Loa.
A group of scientists say they've found a volcano bigger
than you.
Way bigger.
An underwater volcano dubbed Tamu Massif was found
some 1,000 miles east of Japan, says William Sager, a
professor at the University of Houston, who led a team
of scientists in the discovery.
The volcano is about the size of the state of New
Mexico and is among the largest in the solar system,
Sager says.
World's coolest volcanoes
Tamu Massif covers an area of about 120,000 square
miles. In comparison, the largest active volcano on
Earth, Hawaii's Mauna Loa, is about 2,000 square miles,
Sager says.
"Its shape is different from any other sub-marine
volcano found on Earth, and it's very possible it can
give us some clues about how massive volcanoes can
form," Sager says.
Tamu Massif is believed to be about 145 million years
old, and became inactive within a few million years
after it was formed.
The volcano was partly named in honor of Texas A&M
University, where Sager worked for 29 years before
moving to the University of Houston. Tamu is the
university's abbreviation while massif is the French
word for "massive" and a scientific term for a large
mountain mass, according to Sager.
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