Scientists shocked to find sharks living inside active underwater volcano

Back in 2015, scientists set off on a mission to study a famous underwater volcano named Kavachi, which is known for being one of the most active in the southwest Pacific Ocean, when they made an unlikely discovery.

Located near the Solomon Islands, ocean engineer Brennan Phillips took a team to the area in search of hydrothermal activity. At the time of their visit, the volcano was not erupting, allowing them to drop instruments into the volcano, including a deep-sea camera.

After an hour, the camera resurfaced, and the team were able to go through footage captured through the device, and they couldn't believe what they saw.

Not only were silky sharks spotted in the area, but hammerheads too, all seemingly unfazed by the hot, acidic waters in the area.

The site is considered 'dangerous' due to the active nature of Kavachi, which can spew hot lava and ash when it's erupting.

Sharks and other sea animals were seen going about their business (National Geographic)

While setting out to take a closer look at the volcano and see if there were any signs of life nearby, the scientists were shocked to find that there were several different sea creatures swimming around the area.

Scanning the footage, they even suggested that a little 'cave' could be the home of a stingray they spotted, cheering when they saw their first shark on video.

Phillips explained: "The idea of there being large animals like sharks hanging out and living inside the Caldera (a large depression formed when a volcano's magma chamber empties), this volcano conflicts with what we know about Kavachi, which is that it erupts, but when it's erupting, there's no way anything could live in there."

"So to see large animals like this, that are living and (who could) potentially die at any moment, it brings up lots of questions - do they leave? Do they have some sort of sign that it's about to erupt? Do they blow up sky high in little bits?" he suggested.

Seven years later, NASA said it had captured the moment the underwater volcano - nicknamed 'Sharkcano' - erupted after it was spotted spewing up in May that year.

A stingray was also spotted in the volcano's crater by the camera (National Geographic)

Satellite images showed Kavachi sending out lava and superhot acidic water with rock fragments and sulphur into its surroundings.

It's not known if the creatures living in and around the area were killed in the eruption, which followed previous instances in 2007 and 2014.

Experts reckon the sharks may have even mutated to cope with the conditions near the volcano, with these adaptations potentially being a way to help understand how other creatures could adapt to global warming.