---
title: Researchers Solve Ancient Volcanic Mystery
date: 2025-05-02T05:30:00-04:00
author: University of Maryland
canonical_url: "https://today.umd.edu/researchers-solve-ancient-volcanic-mysterystudy-pinpoints-source-of-120m-year-old-super-eruption-explains-submerged-pacific-seafloor"
section: Articles
---
# Researchers Solve Ancient Volcanic Mystery

*May 2, 2025* — by [Georgia Jiang](/author/georgia-jiang)


> Study Pinpoints Source of 120M-Year-Old Super-Eruption, Explains Submerged Pacific Seafloor

*IMG 6579 1920x1080 — UMD researcher Val Finlayson (left) and study collaborator Paulo Galvan recovering rock samples from a dredge while at sea in the Pacific Ocean.*

Geologists led by the University of Maryland and the University of Hawaii have connected the dots between one of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth’s history and its source deep beneath the Pacific Ocean following years of uncertainty among scientists.

In [a paper](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08889-0) published Wednesday in the journal *Nature*, the team revealed that the same underwater hotspot created both a chain of underwater volcanoes in the southern Pacific region and the massive Ontong-Java Plateau, the [largest volcanic platform on Earth](https://news.oregonstate.edu/news/massive-underwater-plateau-near-solomon-islands-younger-and-its-eruption-was-more-protracted).

“Up until now, we’ve had this extremely disconnected picture of the Pacific and its volcanoes,” said the study’s corresponding author, Val Finlayson, an assistant research scientist in UMD’s Department of Geology. “But for the first time, we’re able to make a clear connection between the younger southern and older western Pacific volcanic systems. It’s a discovery that gives us a more complete history of how the Pacific Ocean basin has evolved over millions of years to become what it is today.”

Scientists had long wondered whether the southern Pacific Ocean’s Louisville hot spot—an area where hot and chemically distinct material from deep inside the Earth rises to the surface to create volcanoes—formed both the underwater mountain chain bearing its name and the 120-million-year-old Ontong-Java Plateau, a submerged seafloor platform located what is now north of the Solomon Islands. Previous theories and models on how the Pacific seafloor moved attempted to explain the connection between the two major geological features but failed to provide a definitive answer.

“Much of the physical evidence for a connection between Louisville and Ontong-Java has disappeared because part of the Louisville hot spot track was subducted, or pushed, under tectonic plates in the Pacific region,” Finlayson said. “We had to sample deeply submerged volcanoes from a different long-lived hot spot track to find evidence from tens of millions of years ago that suggested our models for the Pacific plate needed revision.”

In addition to researchers from the UMD and the University of Hawaii, co-authors include researchers from Oregon State University, University of South Carolina, University of California Santa Barbara and Brown University.



*Guys look at charts and computer screens showing undersea formations — Co-lead scientists Jasper Konter and Matt Jackson look for a suitable sampling site using data of seamount collected with the research ship's sonar system.*




**Topics:** [Research](https://today.umd.edu/tags/research)


**Tags:** [Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/geology)


**Units:** [College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences](https://today.umd.edu/topic/college-computer-mathematical-and-natural-sciences)