32,000 Magma Pools Discovered Beneath an Atlantic Island — What’s Going On?

A quiet island in the Atlantic suddenly became the center of a volcanic mystery after thousands of earthquakes shook São Jorge in Portugal’s Azores in March 2022. At first, the fear was simple: was the island heading toward an eruption? But the real story underground turned out to be even stranger.

Scientists now believe a massive sheet of magma surged upward from more than 20 kilometers beneath the surface, moved quickly through the crust, and then stopped just 1.6 kilometers below the island. The amount of molten rock was estimated to be enough to fill around 32,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, yet much of its journey happened with surprisingly little seismic warning.