Scientists have long been captivated by the notion of oceanic megaplumes and their fathomless origins, especially when it comes to theories on how humanity could possibly plug into this naturally occurring engine. There has been nominal research into seafloor volcanic activity and taming its geothermal energy, but these megaplume events are far too infrequent and remote to offer any substantial amount of information to further develop understanding of their dynamics.
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But according to a study published last week in Nature Communications, volcanologists Sam Pegler and David Ferguson of the University of Leeds employed both direct observations and mathematical computations to navigate around the fact that there’s such an absence of data. To formulate their hypothesis, scientists tapped into data collected by other researchers who examined the Northeast Pacific’s Northern Escanaba (NESCA) lava flow back in 2009.