The adventure movie Sharknado is completely illogical. A cyclone full of sharks, throwing the animals around wherever it touches ground? Nonsense. What they really should’ve done is made Sharkcano, an actual, scientific phenomenon.
NASA recently published a report on an eruption of the Kavachi volcano, in the Solomon Islands. Typically, the waters around a volcano make life difficult for any species, due to higher temperatures and other minerals. Not Kavachi, where two species of shark are happily living around the mountain. The silky shark and the scalloped hammerhead shark both call the location home, and scientists have come to the conclusion that they’ve become specifically attuned to the water there.
“Our observations of secondary and tertiary consumers inside Kavachi’s hydrothermal plume contribute to ongoing research into the physiological and behavioural resiliency of marine animals to increased temperature, acidity, and turbidity,” the 2016 report states, adding: “The ecosystem that is supported by the extreme environment of Kavachi’s crater may offer clues to the types of animals that have survived past major changes in ocean chemistry, and those that will thrive in future ocean conditions.”
This has all become relevant now because NASA managed to catch an eruption from Kavachi. Sadly, it doesn’t appear that any sharks were blasted into the sky, nor any three-headed dragons ala the MonsterVerse, but the event is relatively rare, and provides more data on such a special environment.
The eruption was underwater, and was noticed during April and May off this year. The process is believed to have started in October 2021. Occasional, these outbursts lead to small islands around Kavachi, creating a Shark-archipelago, but they’re usually eroded fairly swiftly.
Now that we know Kavahi exists, it’s time for Hollywood to step it up. Godzilla Vs Sharkcano, and watch the box office implode.