William Sager News

Tamu Massif is a volcano the size of New Mexico and lurks 6,500 feet beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. During their 36 day expedition, the science team undertook a survey of immense proportions mapping an area nearly one million square kilometers in size. Not only were they able to gather new high-resolution acoustic imagery of this little known volcano, but they also collected 1.7 million magnetic measurements to better understand how such a large volcano was formed. The rocks of the giant volcano record the Earth’s magnetic field at the time they were erupted, giving scientists clues about the timing and process of eruption. The science team aboard R/V Falkor led by University of Houston marine geophysicist Dr.

A University of Houston (UH) professor led a team of scientists to uncover the largest single volcano yet documented on Earth. Covering an area roughly equivalent to the British Isles or the state of New Mexico, this volcano, dubbed the Tamu Massif, is nearly as big as the giant volcanoes of Mars, placing it among the largest in the Solar System. William Sager, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at UH, first began studying the volcano about 20 years ago at Texas A&M’s College of Geosciences. Sager and his team’s findings appear in the Sept.