https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. The seafloor plays an important ecological and societal role. Understanding the processes that shape this environment will help guide conservation policy and decision-making about underwater infrastructure and geohazards. https://phys.org/news/2026-07-qa-technology-seafloor.html Earth Sciences Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:40:01 EDT news703943237 On May 8, 2026, satellites detected signs of an unexpected submarine volcanic eruption in the Bismarck Sea near the islands of Papua New Guinea. Over the next several weeks, plumes of steam and ash streamed over the sea, and areas of discolored water surrounded the eruption site. Relatively little is known about the ocean floor in this area or the volcanic feature that is presently erupting. But experts think the new activity, ongoing as of mid-June, might be occurring along the Titan Ridge and has the potential to form an ephemeral new island. https://phys.org/news/2026-06-pumice-rafts-encroach-admiralty-islands.html Earth Sciences Sat, 20 Jun 2026 11:30:02 EDT news700747515 Located in Sicily, Mount Etna is Europe's most active volcano. Yet its origin remains largely enigmatic, as no existing geological model fully explains how it formed. In a new study, scientists from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) shed light on these mechanisms and reveal why Mount Etna may in fact be unique in the world. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-mount-etna-volcano-kilometer-deep.html Earth Sciences Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:40:05 EDT news695301122 Earth's "gold kitchen" lies deep beneath the seafloor. Island arcs, whose volcanoes form above subduction zones where one oceanic plate sinks beneath another, are often particularly rich in gold. The reasons for this have long been debated. https://phys.org/news/2026-04-subduction-zones-earth-gold-kitchens.html Earth Sciences Wed, 01 Apr 2026 16:20:01 EDT news694263001 Forecasting earthquakes presents a serious challenge on land, but in the oceans that cover around 70% of Earth's surface it is all but impossible. However, the vast network of undersea cables that crisscross the world's seas could soon change this. As well as transmitting data around the planet, they can also monitor the tectonic movements that cause earthquakes and tsunamis. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-million-km-undersea-internet-cables.html Earth Sciences Tue, 17 Feb 2026 19:20:02 EST news690546568 The giant planet Jupiter has nearly 100 known moons, yet none have captured the interest and imagination of astronomers and space scientists quite like Europa, an ice-shrouded world that is thought to possess a vast ocean of liquid salt water. For decades, scientists have wondered whether that ocean could harbor the right conditions for life, placing Europa near the top of the list of solar system bodies to explore. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-jupiter-moon-europa-lacks-undersea.html Astrobiology Tue, 06 Jan 2026 11:00:01 EST news686910397 You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA's rovers. What if there were a time machine capable of roaming Earth during its remote geological past, perhaps even going right back to its beginnings, beaming back pictures of similar quality? https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ancient-african-bedrock-reveals-violent.html Earth Sciences Fri, 02 Jan 2026 09:56:22 EST news686570161 By 2100, Australian and global coral reef communities will be slow to recover, less complex, and dominated by fleshy algae, as high carbon dioxide changes ocean chemistry. https://phys.org/news/2025-11-volcanic-fate-coral-acidic-seas.html Ecology Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:07:04 EST news683197621 Buried deep in Greenland's ice sheet lies a puzzling chemical signature that has sparked intense scientific debate. A sharp spike in platinum concentrations, discovered in an ice core (a cylinder of ice drilled out of ice sheets and glaciers) and dated to around 12,800 years ago, has provided support for a hypothesis that Earth was struck by an exotic meteorite or comet at that time. https://phys.org/news/2025-09-volcano-meteorite-evidence-puzzling-discovery.html Earth Sciences Fri, 19 Sep 2025 12:37:04 EDT news677504221 A powerful earthquake struck Wednesday off Russia's Far East coast, flooding a fishing port with waves from a tsunami, cutting power to a few areas and sending some panicked residents fleeing buildings but causing only a few injuries. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-russia-east-ice-major-earthquake.html Environment Wed, 30 Jul 2025 13:30:01 EDT news673098717 People have long wondered what life was first like on Earth, and if there is life in our solar system beyond our planet. Scientists have reason to believe that some of the moons in our solar system—like Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus—may contain deep, salty liquid oceans under an icy shell. Seafloor volcanoes could heat these moons' oceans and provide the basic chemicals needed for life. https://phys.org/news/2025-07-microbes-deep-sea-volcanoes-scientists.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:00:05 EDT news672320536 A mysterious and highly active undersea volcano off the Pacific Coast could erupt by the end of this year, scientists say. https://phys.org/news/2025-05-mysterious-highly-undersea-volcano-california.html Earth Sciences Wed, 21 May 2025 07:01:14 EDT news667029666 An accumulation of weak to moderate earthquakes has been recorded around the Greek island of Santorini since 24 January. The seismic activity is concentrated in the area between the islands of Santorini and Amorgos, with a center around 25 km northeast of Santorini. https://phys.org/news/2025-02-qa-earthquakes-santorini.html Earth Sciences Thu, 06 Feb 2025 16:59:04 EST news658083541 Continents and oceans have scientific definitions that underpin international law. The idea of dividing the world into geographical zones is ancient. Sovereignty and influence over natural resources is at the heart of most global divisions. https://phys.org/news/2025-01-continental-drift-critical-minerals-earth.html Earth Sciences Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:40:01 EST news655382634 "Core on deck!" For two months, whenever I heard that cry, I would run up to the deck of the JOIDES Resolution to watch the crew pull up a 30-foot (10-meter) cylindrical tube filled with layered, multicolored rock and sediment drilled from the seafloor beneath our ship. https://phys.org/news/2024-07-seafloor-sediment-reveals-previously-unknown.html Earth Sciences Tue, 23 Jul 2024 12:40:01 EDT news640956691 Mercury is a toxic heavy metal that can exist stably as a gas, with high volatility and global distribution in the atmosphere. Volcanoes represent a primary natural source of Hg in the atmosphere, with significant effects on Hg cycles on both global and regional scales. Mercury can undergo both mass-dependent fractionation (MDF) and mass-independent fractionation (MIF) in Earth systems. https://phys.org/news/2024-05-applications-mercury-stable-isotopes-volcanism.html Earth Sciences Tue, 21 May 2024 16:07:03 EDT news635526421 An international team of scientists co-led by Dr. Steffen Kutterolf from GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel has found evidence of a historical submarine eruption of the Kameni volcano on Santorini for the first time. In their paper, published today in the journal Nature Geoscience, they describe newly discovered pumice and ash deposits that support historical records of an underwater eruption in 726 CE. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-scientific-drilling-unravels-historical-mystery.html Earth Sciences Mon, 25 Mar 2024 13:53:04 EDT news630593582 A skeleton lies exposed to the elements as turquoise Caribbean waters lap the shores near a shattered tomb—a grisly reminder that the Colombian city of Cartagena is slowly being swallowed by the sea. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-colombia-caribbean-jewel-slowly-sea.html Environment Wed, 13 Mar 2024 04:50:01 EDT news629523453 The Greek archipelago of Santorini consists of the remains of a powerful volcano. Members of the international IODP expedition "Hellenic Arc Volcanic Field" have now found evidence of one of the largest eruptions ever recorded in the southern Aegean Arc. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-evidence-largest-explosive-eruptions-aegean.html Earth Sciences Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:17:33 EST news624539851 An undersea volcano erupted off Japan three weeks ago, providing a rare view of the birth of a tiny new island, but experts say it may not last very long. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-island-emerges-undersea-volcano-erupts.html Earth Sciences Thu, 09 Nov 2023 13:38:04 EST news618759480 The January 15, 2022, eruption of Hunga Volcano in Tonga continues to break records. According to a new study, the eruption created a "supercharged" thunderstorm that produced the most intense lightning ever recorded. There were nearly 200,000 lightning flashes in the volcanic plume throughout the eruption, peaking at more than 2,600 flashes every minute, the researchers found. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-tonga-hunga-eruption-intense-lightning.html Earth Sciences Tue, 20 Jun 2023 15:28:07 EDT news606493680 Underwater volcanoes on the Earth's crust are active contributors of many different elements to the oceanic environment. Hence, they play an important role in biogeochemical and chemosynthetic cycles of the ocean. Although there have been many studies on high-temperature hydrothermal systems in the mid-ocean ridge—a series of underwater volcanoes that trace the edges of the different oceanic plates—there is little information on low-temperature hydrothermal systems in other volcanoes, such as "petit-spot" volcanoes. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-petit-spot-volcanoes-involve-deepest-submarine.html Earth Sciences Thu, 01 Jun 2023 05:00:01 EDT news604760659 An international team has used satellite- and ground-based ionospheric observations to demonstrate that an air pressure wave triggered by volcanic eruptions could produce an equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) in the ionosphere, severely disrupting satellite-based communications. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-eruption-tonga-underwater-volcano-disrupt.html Earth Sciences Mon, 22 May 2023 07:05:59 EDT news603957955 The 2022 eruption of a submarine volcano in Tonga was more powerful than the largest U.S. nuclear explosion, according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science and the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-tongan-volcanic-eruption-largest-natural.html Earth Sciences Fri, 14 Apr 2023 14:00:03 EDT news600683996 Material left on the seafloor by bronze-age underwater volcanic eruptions is helping researchers better understand the size, hazards and climate impact of their parent eruptions, according to new research from the University of British Columbia. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-re-evaluates-hazards-climate-impacts-massive.html Earth Sciences Tue, 11 Apr 2023 11:00:03 EDT news600425721 Nearly 100 million years ago, the Earth experienced an extreme environmental disruption that choked oxygen from the oceans and led to elevated marine extinction levels that affected the entire globe. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-malformed-seashells-ancient-sediment-clues.html Earth Sciences Thu, 19 Jan 2023 11:00:04 EST news593333500 Using a novel imaging technique for volcanoes that produces high-resolution pictures of seismic wave properties, a new study reveals a large, previously undetected body of mobile magma underneath Kolumbo, an active submarine volcano near Santorini, Greece. The presence of the magma chamber increases the chances of a future eruption, prompting the researchers to recommend real-time hazard monitoring stations near other active submarine volcanoes to improve estimations of when an eruption might be likely to occur. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-magma-chamber-mediterranean-volcano.html Earth Sciences Thu, 12 Jan 2023 17:12:24 EST news592765938 Hawaii's Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano in the world, has erupted for the first time in nearly 40 years, US authorities said, spewing lava and ash Monday as emergency crews went on alert. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-hawaii-volcano-world-largest-erupts.html Environment Mon, 28 Nov 2022 10:08:45 EST news588852519 A volcano is likely erupting deep beneath the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, but scientists don't know for sure because it's so inaccessible. https://phys.org/news/2022-11-remote-undersea-volcano-erupting-pacific.html Environment Tue, 15 Nov 2022 03:57:48 EST news587707066 The VASI (Venus Atmospheric Structure Investigation) instrument aboard NASA's Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging, or DAVINCI, mission to Venus, together with the other instruments on this mission, aims to investigate Venus's mysterious atmosphere by painting a more detailed picture of it than ever before. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-instrument-temperature-pressure-venus.html Planetary Sciences Thu, 20 Oct 2022 15:51:41 EDT news585499899