Volcanoes are well known for being, you know, fiery and hot. And yet, they can be found dotting the floor of the famously frigid deep ocean – a place where their existence seems to defy intuition. Why do they appear there? How do they survive? And what happens when they erupt? The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Turns out, some of those questions are easier to answer than others.

Why are most volcanoes underwater?

Think of all the volcanoes on Earth. There are, what? A thousand? One thousand five hundred? That’s about right . Quite a lot, is the point. Now multiply that number by four. That’s how many more volcanoes are thought to be under the oceans – but why?

Your first thought might be that it’s not all that surpr

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