Updated:
Save
In August 2020 and after a long period of inactivity, the volcano Orca submarinenear the island king georgein Antarctica, woke up suddenly and in just a few months caused a gigantic swarm of more than 85,000 earthquakes in the area. In November of that same year the activity ceased, and since then an international team of geologists and volcanologists has been trying to understand what happened. This is the largest seismic activity ever recorded in the entire region.
According to a study just published in Communications Earth & Environment, the earthquakes were likely caused by a ‘finger’ of very hot magma penetrating the Earth’s crust from deep within the mantle. “There have been similar intrusions in other places on Earth – the seismologist explains to ‘LiveScience’ Simone Cescafirst signatory of the investigation-, but this is the first time that we observe it there.