47. Are there volcanoes under the sea like those on land? 



Volcanoes have built up impressive mounds and ridges under the 

 oceans. In many places these volcanic ridges extend above the sea sur- 

 face as islands. Iceland is part of a ridge of volcanoes that also includes 

 the Azores. The Hawaiian Islands are part of a volcanic chain that ex- 

 tends across the Pacific for nearly 2,000 miles. 



On November 14, 1963, a new volcanic island began to rise from the 

 North Atlantic, just south of Iceland. Fishermen witnessed the birth of 

 the island, now known as Surtsey. Before the volcanic activity began, 



the ocean at this spot was 425 feet deep. After the initial eruption, an 

 outpouring of lava built up about an acre a day. One of the first scien- 

 tists to arrive on the scene was Professor Paul Bauer of American Uni- 

 versity, who continuously observed and recorded the growth of Surtsey. 

 His pictorial and scientific documentation of this evolutionary process 

 as a day-by-day event is the first and only such record and should be a 

 most useful record for research study by geologists for years to come. 

 A 30-minute film is available on Surtsey. 



Blanchard, Duncan C. 



From Raindrops to Volcanoes, Doubleday and Company, 1967. 

 Gaskell,T. F. 



World Beneath the Oceans, American Museum of Natural History, 



1964. 

 Thorarinsson, Sigurdur 



"Surtsey— Island of Fire," National Geographic, Vol. 127, No. 5, 

 May, 1965. 



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