Prof Watts describes breakthrough in volcano detection on BBC News

Professor Watts is joint leader of a research project that has captured startling new images from the Rim of Fire in the depths of the Pacific Ocean to reveal one of Earth's most violent processes: the destruction of massive underwater mountains. 

The pictures were created by sonar in waters up to 6km deep, and show how tectonic action is dragging giant volcanoes into a chasm in the seabed. The volcanoes are strung across several thousand kilometres of ocean floor and are moving westward on the Pacific tectonic plate at up to 6cm per year. The extraordinary scene was captured along the Tonga Trench during a research expedition last summer.

Professor Watts explained that earthquakes are less frequent at the precise point where the volcanoes enter the trench. "When you see the size of these features you'd think they'd cause massive earthquakes and disruption - and that was our starting hypothesis. But we found that the volcanoes were highly fractured before they entered the trench - which is very important for what happens after they enter the system."

The images are the result of a joint project by earth scientists from Oxford and Durham, who hope that the research may help to understand whether the destruction of these volcanoes adds to the risks of tsunamis in the region.

Read more on BBC News