The source of the prolonged Mayotte earthquake swarm has been finally identified.
It’s a new active volcano discovered 3.5 km (2.7 miles) below sea surface, measuring 0.8 km (0.5 miles) high and 4-5 km (2.5-3.1 miles) in diameter.
Fluid release reaches 2km above volcano… so will soon reach the water surface!
Here is a better view of the underwater volcano situated 50km off the island of Mayotte.
You can clearly see the topography of the volcanic edifice and the rising fluid column rising above it.
The fluid column is ~2km high but do not reach the surface. Let it a few more years of underwater eruptions and soon we will have an event like this:
First an earthquake swarm, now an underwater volcano and in a few thousands of years, a new island (maybe)! [Twitter 1, Twitter 2, Press release]
