Kavachi is one of the most active
underwater volcanoes in the southwest Pacific Ocean .
It's surrounded by hot, acidic seawater that can make it too dangerous for
human divers — and that's when it's not erupting explosively.
But when a team of scientists recently
sent down camera-equipped robots, they not only found animals surviving in and
around the volcano; they found a surprising amount of biodiversity, including
silky sharks, hammerhead sharks and the rarely seen Pacific sleeper shark,
which had previously been caught on video just twice.
The sharkcano is located south of Vangunu
in the Solomon Islands
"Nobody actually knows how often
Kavachi erupts," team member Brennan Phillips tells National Geographic.
And even when it's not launching lava, ash and steam above the surface, he
adds, it can be too extreme for divers to explore. "Divers who have gotten
close to the outer edge of the volcano have had to back away because of how hot
it is or because they were getting mild skin burns from the acid water."
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