How do underwater volcanoes affect the ocean floor?
Underwater volcanoes affect the seafloor in many ways. The heat and magma from these volcanoes make the ocean much more shallow near a volcano. Some marine volcanoes even break the surface like Hawaii. Marine volcanoes can also cause water to circulate in the crust. This can bring strange chemicals to the seafloor that help underwater biological communities thrive! (Tim Crone) When a volcano erupts does the lava come out and kill sea creatures? Yes!! It can happen, especially if they are in the way of a lava flow. Just such an event happened at 9N latitude on the East Pacific Rise in the Pacific Ocean where a new lava flow covered and cooked a cluster of tube worms and killed them. This area was known as the “Tube Worm Barbeque” site. Fortunately, within a year or two after the eruption, new worms had already come in to colonize the seafloor. (Matt Schrenk) [More info at Dr. Dawn Wright’s web site or here.] Do volcanic eruptions change the ocean floor? Very simply, yes, and drastically
