Australian researchers will lead an international effort looking at the volatility of a huge, dormant, submerged sea plateau that could pose a tsunami risk.
The remote Ontong Java Plateau is found northeast of Australia past the Solomon Islands and is believed to have formed in the largest volcanic eruption in earth's history, some 122 million years ago.
It is roughly the size of Western Australia and lies beneath several atolls and islands that could be at risk from future rupture or movement.
Mike Coffin from the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies will be chief scientist on a three-week voyage to the region, joined by researchers from Germany, Japan, Papua New Guinea, the UK, and the US.
"We will be collaborating to produce sea floor maps that will improve tsunami predictions for people living on its surmounting younger atolls," Professor Coffin said before the team's departure on October 15.
The research will examine the surface of the 35km thick plateau, which is at its most shallow point, some 1.5km below the waves.
New technology including underwater vehicles are enabling the latest research which has previously been hindered by water depths and a kilometre-thick blanket of sediment lying atop the plateau.
