Monowai underwater volcano revealed by sonar

The violent rise and collapse of an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean is captured in startling clarity for the first time.

A team of researchers studying the Monowai volcano near Tonga recorded huge changes in height in the space of just two weeks.

The images - gathered by sonar from a research ship - shed new light on the turbulent fate of submarine mountains.

Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the findings were made during a seabed survey last year.