The discovery that Tamu Massif was the biggest volcano on earth was published in Nature Geosciences by William Sager at University of Houston, with his Chinese student Zhang Jinchang, a doctoral candidate at College of Marine Geosciences at Ocean University of China (OUC).

This discovery was published in the top 10 most favorite science news by Nature magazine.

US scientists believe that this breakthrough will have a significant impact on Volcanology research. According to Zhang Jinchang, Prof. Sager and his team found the Tamu Massif at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 1000 miles east of Japan, covering an area of 120,000 square miles, almost as large as the State of New Mexico in the US. “To date, the biggest volcano discovered in the solar system was Olympus Mons on Mars, which Tamu Massif could almost rival with,” said Prof. Sager, who has over 20 years of experience with the research of submarine volcanoes in the area. The name Tamu Massif was the abbreviation of Texas A&M University, where he was working. According to CNN, Tamu Massif was formed about 145 million years ago, and became a dead volcano millions of years after its formation.

OUC doctoral student Zhang Jinchang played a significant role in the research. Zhang was born in 1983 and was admitted to OUC in 2002, studying Exploration Technology and Engineering in the College of Marine Geosciences. In 2009, Zhang was sponsored by the government to pursue a PhD degree at Texas A&M University with Prof. Sager as his mentor. Zhang has been a versatile student with multiple achievements during his OUC years.