Source: New Zealand Herald
Author: Jamie Morton
Deep below the ocean, several hundred kilometres northeast of New Zealand, lies the world’s most hydrothermally active volcano.
The Brothers volcano is huge – it’s about three times the size of White Island and its summit rises to within 1200m of sea level – and it sits thick in one of the most active regions of the planet, the Kermadec Arc.
In a bold first, scientists will soon attempt to drill directly into the beast’s belly – meeting rocks as hot as 400C as they go.
The two-month-long international expedition, setting out from Auckland this week, will drill three boreholes into Brothers – one of them planned to reach a depth of about 800m into a cone growing up inside the submarine volcano’s caldera.
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