On the September 5th, 2013, a team of marine geologists lead by professor William Sager discovered the largest volcano on Earth – Tamu Massif which is now inactive. Its name is an abbreviation of Texas A&M Universtiy, where Sager was previously working. It is located about 2 km (6.500 ft) deep in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 1.600 km (900 mi) east of Japan.
Tamu Massif itself is about 4.400 meters (14.400 ft) tall. While the volcano isn’t that tall, its size (approximately 190.000 square km or 120.000 square mi) is very impressive. It is about as big as the Britain, Ireland and the state of New Mexico together. What now is the second biggest discovered volcano on the Earth, Mauna Loa in Hawaai is 60 times smaller than Tamu Massif. Its size is very similar to the gigantic volcanoes on Mars, placing Tamu Massif among the largest volcanoes in the Solar System.
The underwater plateau, Shatsky Rise, where this volcano was discovered, was already explored since the early 20th century, however, Tamu Massif was wrongly perceived as a group of volcanoes instead of a single one. The volcano was made of lava flows that emanated from the volcano center about 145 million years ago. Because the eruptive lava flows were traveling unusually large distances, Tamu Massif got its characteristic shield-like shape. Its slopes are very gradual, barely a degree from the ground level. “If you were standing on its flank, you would have trouble telling which way is downhill”, says William Sager.
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