Researchers have discovered the cause of a massive earthquake swarm plaguing the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean since 2018: a newly forming ocean. The region has experienced over a million earthquakes, including a significant magnitude 5.9 quake in 2019. Initially, the origin of the swarm was a mystery, but scientists utilizing satellite data and underwater surveys now believe the seismic activity is due to a large magma reservoir deep beneath the island of Mayotte.
This magma reservoir, located 30 kilometers beneath the seafloor, began draining in 2018, triggering the earthquakes. The draining magma flowed eastward, creating a new underwater volcano 50 kilometers off the coast of Mayotte. This volcanic activity, fueled by the emptying magma reservoir, is the key to understanding the earthquake swarm.
The emptying of the magma chamber is causing the ocean floor to sink and the crust to deform significantly, creating a massive crack in the lithosphere. This process is a key step in the formation of a new oceanic basin. The East African Rift Valley system, which stretches thousands of kilometers across Africa, is slowly splitting the continent apart, and this activity near Mayotte is considered a southern extension of this rift system. The discovery provides a unique opportunity to study the early stages of ocean formation, a process that typically occurs over millions of years, in real-time.
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