Scientists are studying whether a submerged extinct volcano may sit to the south of Kauai, a would-be sister island to the Garden Isle that never emerged above the ocean. They're testing the theory by examining 363 volcanic rocks recently collected from the sea floor around Kauai, Niihau and Kaula islands and Middle Bank. Garrett Apuzen-Ito, a University of Hawaii geophysicist who co-led a research voyage to the spot, says the area south of Kauai has long been assumed to be a massive underwater landslide that came from Kauai. The researchers used an unmanned robotic vehicle owned by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to collect volcanic rocks, photos and video as deep as 14,000 feet underwater. They used multibeam sonar and acoustic imagery to map the sea floor.