Discovery Of The Lake Can Help Scientists Predict Future Volcanic Eruptions (Video)

Our world is really amazing. A lake was recently discovered hiding under the volcano. Researchers investigate if the lake could help them predict volcanic eruptions.

The body of water is composed of rock that is partially melted. The researchers say that it could potentially help them explain why the eruptions happen. It could also play a significant role in the continental crust formation in the Earth.

A team of researchers led by Joe Blundy from the University of Bristol in the U.K. discovered the body of water while studying a huge abnormality 15 kilometers beneath the latent Uturuncu volcano located in the Bolivian Andes. The deviation slows down the seismic waves and produces electricity, not like the surrounding magma.

The research team mixed the rocks spat out by an eruption last 500,000 years ago from Uturuncu and mixed them with different amounts of water before uncovering them to conditions before replicating those in the anomaly. It includes pressure 30,000 times as high as atmospheric pressure. The temperature is high up to 1,500 degree Celsius. Blundy said that "We reproduced conditions deep in the Earth in the lab."

The experts found that at a precise water content, the mixture's conductivity correlates the value measures in the anomaly. Blundy added that "By weight, we calculated it contains 8 to 10 percent water."

The researchers explained that the anomaly accommodates as much water as some of the world's largest freshwater lakes. Blundy said that "It's probably somewhere between Lake Superior and Lake. It's a staggeringly large amount," according to AOL.

In line with this, Steve Jacobsen from the Northwestern University in Evanston at Illinois said: "This study illuminates a new feature of Earth's deep-water cycle, and reminds us how little we know about the pathway of water through the Earth's crust and mantle systems on a geologic timescale."

The researchers concluded that water is one of the volatile components dissolved in magma that triggers volcanic eruptions. "Dissolved at shallower depths where the pressure is lower, it comes out as bubbles, which end up as an explosive eruption," said Blundy.

In addition, the researchers suggest that learning more about how the water can trigger eruptions can guide geologists to further explain the seismic activity. It could also lead them to improve prediction with volcanic eruptions, according to New Scientists.