Several huge active submarine volcanoes, spreading ridges and rift zones have been discovered northeast of Fiji by a team of Australian and American scientists aboard the Marine National Facility Research Vessel, Southern Surveyor.
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“These deep-sea features are important in understanding the influences that have shaped not only our unique continent but indeed the whole planet,” Professor Arculus says.
Such discoveries highlighted man’s lack of knowledge about the world’s oceans. “We know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the ocean seafloor,” Professor Arculus says.
CSIRO’s Director of Research Vessels, Captain Fred Stein, says the expedition was a humbling experience. “It was a reminder that at the beginning of the 21st century it is still possible – on what is often regarded as a thoroughly explored planet – to discover a previously unknown massif larger than Mt Kosciuszko,” he says.
