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Freiberg (pte011/06.02.2003/09:55) - German researchers have discovered 20 giant underground volcanoes near the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific.
Ulrich Schwarz-Schampera who is part of the team from the Freiberg University of Mining and Technology said: "It is very unusual to have so many volcanoes in one area. They do present a problem because if they were to erupt they would create massive waves that would flood the islands."
The feet of the volcanoes lie some 1,800 metres below sea level, with each volcano having a height of over 1,000 metres. Some of them, said Schwarz-Schampera, are enormous. They have craters of up to a kilometre deep and 1.8 kilometres circumference - which is comparable to measurements taken from Mount Vesuvius in Italy.
The team from the German university are on a 49-day expedition of the South Pacific and are exploring the region between Tonga and New Zealand. Their task is to map the sea floor and to take rock samples. While doing this the scientists have stumbled across ore deposits in waters of only 200 metres in depth, which they say suggest rich gold deposits off the coast of Tonga.
http://www.mineral.tu-freiberg.de/econgeology/mitarbeiter/schwarz_e.html
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