Have you ever heard about Sharkcano? It is the first volcano shark ever discovered in the entire universe. This sounds like an imaginary thing, a volcano shark? What? But believe it or not, they are actually real sharks living in the kavachi volcano in Solomon Island. To know more about these sharks, let’s take a deep look into the life of Sharkcanos.
Many theories have been reported about the survival mechanism that sharks had adopted. But to live in an extreme harsh environmental condition like in Active Volcanoes has created a fuss among the scientists. Sharks usually inhabit volcanoes but the reported studies about their surviving in them have confused many scientists. This confusion has been cleared when the images recently collected by NASA of a large plume emerging from Kavachi volcano in the Solomon Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Kavachi Volcano – Solomon Island
The name “Kavachi” comes from the Sea god “Kavachi” located on the coastal areas of Solomon island, about 950 miles towards the North-East of Australia Kavachi is one of the most active submarine volcanoes to be known on Earth, which is why the study of sharks is extremely difficult in it. However, the conditions may begin to change because the sharks are eventually living there about 18 metres under the surface of the ocean in an active crater.
Kavachi shark volcano – “Sharkcano”
“Sharkano” is not just a title of a science – fiction movie or of a campy summer blockbuster, but it’s a real world mystery that has been resolved in 2015 when scientists have found sharks thriving thousands of metres underwater, the most active volcanoes on the planet. The temperature at the bottom of the ocean is extremely hazardous, near to boiling.
Discovery of sharks
This story came into the limelight when the scientists have accidently discovered sharks in the depths of Kavachi volcano. Their actual purpose was to picture the volcano, during its eruption. Dr. Brennan Philips, a volcanic researcher, dropped a camera directly in the centre of a volcano about 150 feet deep from the surface of the ocean. The researcher team got extremely shocked when they saw a bulky silky hammerhead shark coming straight to the camera.
Could sharks really thrive in a volcano?
The underwater volcano is not suitable for the marine animals to survive there but the investigation of Kavachi Island depicted that the lava is andesitic and basaltic with magnesium, iron and silica. The water around the volcano is acidic due to the presence of sulphuric acid and muddy because of the volcanic particles. Under these circumstances, it is very difficult for marine animals to survive there.
To answer such a question that sharks can live in a volcano is amazingly YES, sharks do have a capability to bear such environmental conditions because they are adapted to acidic, boiling hot water and continuous eruptions of volcanoes.
Why does a shark prefer to live in a volcano?
The appearance of muddy and musky water around the volcano has nothing to do with the survival of the sharks. However, other marine animals or small fishes cannot thrive there because of the extreme conditions or also because they are the source of food for the sharks. The conditions are not same for the sharks because sharks possessed specific features – electroreceptors named as ampullae of lorenzini that helps in detecting electric fields in water bodies. Moreover, these receptors also help them in navigation in musky and muddy water. The receptors provide them shelter from enemies and detect the electric current produced by other marine creatures, thus helping them to locate their prey as well.
What food do sharks feed on?
The rocks of volcanic eruption are rich in minerals like magnesium and iron that are the core particles for the formation of corals underwater and are also a hiding place for other marine animals. So the water surrounding the volcano contains many underwater marine populations including small fishes, crustaceans which is a divine hunting cafe for the sharks.
What do sharks actually do when volcanic eruptions occur?
Sharks have a remarkable ability of detecting both electric and magnetic fields produced by the Earth. The lava of the volcano is rich in iron which produces magnetic fields, these magnetic and electric fields are detected by the sharks and give them signs about the upcoming eruptions as well.
Researchers are still trying to figure out more about the sharkcano and are also planning to find more about them in future to know what exactly sharks do or where they tend to go when the volcanic eruption occurs.
Final Words
The kavachi volcano is also named as sharkcano because the researchers found sharks living in the extremely heated water bodies in the volcano. But the mystery still lies in how they survive and what do they do when a volcanic eruption occurs? We hope to find the answers soon.