Researchers have found a potentially younger and active volcanic hotspot beneath the Cook Islands' waters, some of which may even be active. The researchers were on an expedition to map the seafloor near the Cook Islands in the Central Pacific, about 2,900 miles (4,700 kilometres) south of Hawaii, when they found the volcanoes. 

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The Cook Islands are a group of 15 islands in the South Pacific Ocean, which is located between French Polynesia and American Samoa. Like the Hawaiian Islands, this archipelago was produced millions of years ago when the Pacific plate slid across a magma hotspot in the Earth's mantle.

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The Seabed Minerals Authority (SBMA) recently went volcano hunting in collaboration with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), the University of California Santa Barbara and Kiva Marine. 

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Researchers said that the seabed of the Cook Islands is made mostly of rocks formed from undersea volcanoes of different kinds. They found a landscape of hills, valleys and plains when they mapped the seabed in some detail. 

In a statement published on March 24, researchers said that most of these volcanoes are quite old, about 10, 20, 30, or even over 100 million years old, but the islands of Rarotonga and Aitutaki are different. 

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Researchers mapped the seabed

Researchers said that both islands are made of a combination of older and younger volcanic rocks. The younger rocks are much younger, with lavas as young as "only" 1.2 million years old on Rarotonga. 

This is the main reason why Rarotonga at least has such large mountains compared to the other islands. The researchers explained that there hasn't been enough time for the rain and waves to erode all of the volcanic rock into the sea. 

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The researchers used special equipment to map the seabed along the likely hotspot chain and also were able to collect a little water column information. 

They said that new mapping shows a line of volcanoes on the seabed southeast of Rarotonga. In addition to Tama and Pepe, there are smaller volcanic knolls along the line connecting them with Rarotonga and occurring further southeast again. 

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"So far, we have not seen any clear signs of volcanic activity, but then again, no one has yet had the chance to look carefully at the seabed and sample it," the statement quoted the representatives from SBMA as saying. 

"Once fully processed and interpreted, our new seabed map should help any future scientists quickly go directly to the best points for this sampling," the statement added.