Marine scientists find millions of tiny starfish inhabiting undersea volcano

WELLINGTON, New Zealand : Marine scientists surveying a large undersea mountain chain were amazed to find millions of tiny starfish swirling their arms to capture food in the undersea current.

[Adrian Godsafe MSc]

Remember!

The Macquarie ridge is a seismically active subduction zone and the volcanoes are leikely dormant rather than exteinct.

The article does not mention whether the seamounts lie on the forearc wedge in which case they are ocean floor basalt & extinct, or whether they lie in the arc graben in which case they are classical stratovolcanoes & definitely NOT extinct as a result of the arc still being active.

The interval time between r/lx for the macquarie ridge is somewhere between 1000-1500 years near the S.part of the transform and closet to 650 years near the double arc @ the Macquarie islands (1300 years average for the double arc megathrusts together) so magma will be down there somewhere.

For r/lx look @ the 26/12/2004 event in the S.Andaman basin (large tsunami). Also compare with big quake in North island 1855 & raised beaches which was an r/lc of arc type which hit the Tongariro & Ruapehu volcanoes & re imported base crustal magma from the disc into the arc graben (now squeezing in making the volcanoes go pop). r/lx interval time in Wellington-Horo Whenua area & cook strait rift WNW. vector is typically 400-450 years. Preveious was "Hao Whenua" event Anthrpolological age 1460?, also affecting the backarc direct to the rift, Tongariro, Ruapehu & Egmont volcanoes, & also the range in the South island down to the Alpine transform fault which had a WSW vector & a runout of ~60m,(the range went first, & overcompressed & popped the arc & backarc in North island.

Have a nice day: Ag

[Staz]

I think your missing the point Adrian. I'm sure their focus wasn't on where exactally the brittle stars were located relative to the geologic features.