National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
United States Department of Commerce

Mariana Back-Arc

World's Deepest Volcanic Eruption Creates Nightmare Garden of Glass

In December 2015, deep-sea researchers discovered a garden of glass on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Like a nightmarish Dale Chihuly exhibit, black tendrils of rapidly cooled lava poured out of an undersea volcano and hung frozen in the dark gallery of the Pacific, unable to fully crystallize in the cold water. The pillowy lava formations stretched out for 4.5 miles (7.3 kilometers), carpeting the floor of a trench nearly 3 miles (4.5 km) below the water's surface. Bill Chadwick is quoted. 

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