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Scientists have identified the declamatory volcanic bang in recorded history — an detonation 7,300 age ago that discharge more than twice as much careen and ash as the previous record - hold eruption of Indonesia’sMount Tambora in 1815 .
The dry land - shattering clap , known as the Kikai - Akahoya eruption , occurred south of Japan ’s Kyushu island , where the Philippine tectonic plate slips beneath the Eurasian shell . The subaqueous Kikai volcano is have a go at it to have produce three major eruptions in the last 140,000 years , the latest of which was the Kikai - Akahoya irruption , accord to a study put out online Feb. 1 in theJournal of vulcanology and Geothermal Research .
The Kikai-Akahoya eruption was an underwater blast, similar to the gigantic Tonga eruption of 2022 (pictured above).
While scientist already know about the ancient volcanic blast , the new inquiry has revealed its record scale and pinpointed it as the heavy eructation of the current geologic epoch . " The eruption has been known for a long fourth dimension , but these author are increase our knowledge of it a lot,“Tim Druitt , a professor of vulcanology at the University of Clermont Auvergne in France who survey the study , told Live Science in an email .
scientist had antecedently find it difficult to pin down the eruption ’s sizing and what trip it because of the inherent challenge in accessing the underwater volcano .
In the new written report , investigator foregather seismal data to create a detailed function of the ocean floor around the volcano . The map revealed huge subaquatic alluviation , which the squad sample by exercise into the sea floor in several locating with a remote - controlled golem and extract sediment burden .
Related : Underwater Santorini volcano eruption 520,000 years ago was 15 time big than record - breaking Tonga eruption
The sediment hauled to the surface revealed a bed cross 1,740 hearty miles ( 4,500 square kilometers ) that contained volcanic glassful matching the composition and timing of the Kikai - Akahoya eruption . The glass and other volcanic debris amounted to roughly 17 cubic miles ( 71 cubic km ) of material ejected into the sea by the eruption — almost double the estimates publish inprevious research .
The researchers unite these findings withexisting estimatesof volcanic debris from the eruption that was bank on nation . They establish that the mega eruption exhaust a total loudness of 80 to 110 cubic miles ( 332 to 457 three-dimensional km ) of stuff — enough to fill Lake Tahoe in the western U.S. doubly over .
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The raw appraisal signify the Kikai - Akahoya eruption is " probably the largest blast of the Holocene , " the investigator wrote in the study . TheHolocene Epochis a geologic period that began 12,000 to 11,500 years ago at the remainder of the last Methedrine geezerhood and which we still live in today .
" Their conclusion that it is the largest Holocene eruption is valid , " Druitt said . " The Minoan eruption of Santorini has also been propose asthe largest Holocene outbreak , but is now known not to be . "
The Kikai - Akahoya irruption still pales in comparison to more ancient eruptions , such as thecataclysmic blowup of Sumatra ’s Toba supervolcano74,000 years ago , which pump out an reckon 1,200 cubic miles ( 5,000 cubic kilometre ) of magma .
