Back in 2015, a group of researchers discovered a volcano full of sharks. Dubbed "Sharkcano," the underwater magma crater heated up the water around it — and rather than kill off the local marine life, it mutated them so they could survive in the extreme conditions.
More recently, NASA captured the active volcano actually erupting:
Kavachi Volcano in the Solomon Islands is one of the most active submarine volcanoes in the Pacific. According to the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program, the volcano entered an eruptive phase in October 2021 and satellite data showed discolored water around Kavachi on several days in April and May 2022.
The image above, acquired on May 14, 2022, by the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9, shows a plume of discolored water being emitted from the submarine volcano, which lies about 24 kilometers (15 miles) south of Vangunu Island (shown below).
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Prior to this recent activity, large eruptions were observed at Kavachi in 2014 and 2007. The volcano erupts nearly continuously, and residents of nearby inhabitated islands often report visible steam and ash. The island is named for a sea god of the Gatokae and Vangunu peoples, and it is sometimes also referred to as Rejo te Kvachi, or "Kavachi's Oven".
Since its first recorded eruption in 1939, Kavachi has created ephemeral islands on several occasions. But the islands, up to a kilometer long, have been eroded and washed away by wave action. The summit of the volcano is currently estimated to lie 20 meters (65 feet) below sea level; its base lies on the seafloor at a depth of 1.2 kilometers (0.75 miles).
No word yet on how the sharks are holding up.
Submarine Eruption of Kavachi Volcano [NASA]
'Sharkcano': Eruption of underwater volcano home to mutant sharks pictured by Nasa satellite [Jeff Parsons / Metro]
