Scientists led by Maria Tsekhmistrenko of Oxford University say that there's a Titanic-sized underground tree that feeds Earth's volcanoes.
An international team of scientists has mapped out a gigantic subterranean tree-like plume that feeds many volcanoes on Earth, and this plume could be Titanic in scale.
The massive plume looks to go to Réunion, a tiny French island in the Indian Ocean that also happens to be home to Piton de la Fournaise, or "peak of the furnace," one of the world's most active volcanoes.
While the existence of this plume had previously been speculated, scientists had never been able to see it seismologically until an international team led by Maria Tsekhmistrenko of Oxford University was able to map the massive "volcanic tree" using data collected by geological "telescopes" that detect the planet's vibrations.
Sanne Cottaar, a seismologist at the University of Cambridge, told Quanta Magazine, "People have had a longer history and an easi...