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Indeed, the fact that there were so many hot spots spaced so closely together suggests that there is a vast underground magma chamber system.

“We don’t believe that sticking a needle into a huge magma chamber is going to create an explosive effect,” he asserts.

It’s not clear what causes these explosions, but scientists have long suspected that as the volcano’s subterranean magma chamber drained, groundwater encroached, flashing to steam with booming results.

The shift suddenly pressurizes the magma chamber, driving out the gas into the sky in an explosive burst.

This missing step involves a sort of geologic juicing in a magma chamber where zircons form before they reach the surface, with oceanic crust entering the chamber ahead of continental crust.