Nafanua, Eel City, And The Crater Of Death

摘要

In 1999, WHOI geochemist Stan Hart was co-chief scientist of a joint WHOI-Scripps Institution of Oceanography expedition that discovered and mapped Vailulu'u-an active volcano rising 4,360 meters (14,300 feet) from the Pacific Ocean seafloor. Resembling Mount Fuji, it sits atop a hot spot, fueled by magma erupting from the mantle, which will eventually build the volcano high enough to become the next island in the Samoan chain. In April 2005, Hart and international colleagues returned to Vailulu'u to make more astonishing discoveries. They found a dome-shaped volcanic cone-growing inside Vailulu'u's milewide caldera-that didn't exist when the scientists last visited in 2001. This new volcano, named Nafanua after the fero-cious Samoan goddess of war, stood 300 meters (1,000 feet) high.