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Underwater volcano makes waves
Hoping to learn more about undersea volcanoes, scientists sent a camera-equipped submarine down to take a look. They got more than they bargained , witnessing a deep-sea eruption. "At first we really didn't understand what was going on,” said Bob Embley, scientist on the mission which involved nearly three dozen researchers. "We were seeing billowing clouds coming up and turning yellow. There was sulfur and rocks were flying out,” said Embley, an oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. "We realized we were the first to witness a deep sea volcano during an eruptive episode.“ He added: "The amazing thing is we were able a sample from it. It would not have been a good place to be in a manned submersible.” The material from the eruption is still being studied. It was highly caustic, Embley said, damaging the camera lenses even though the robotic submarine was quickly the volcano.
The volcano, with a rim 1,800 feet below the sea , was named "Brimstone Pit” by the scientists. The discovery northwest of the island of Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands came during a 21 day voyage to study undersea volcanoes in the western Pacific. Nearly 70 percent of the world's volcanoes undersea, Embley said in a telephone interview. Also on the team was Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist with the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies at Oregon State University. "We were just going from one incredible event to the , seeing things we had never witnessed before,” he said. The trip, which ended on April 18th, included studies of geology and marine life in deep and shallow areas.
In upper levels of the oceans, life draws energy sunlight. Because deeper areas are dark, life there gets its energy from chemicals released by hot ocean vents. At a bit more than 600 feet deep the researchers found a zone where the two overlap, finding both light-loving and chemical-using life forms, Embley said. "The biologists were amazed to see this, two of earth's ecosystems overlapping. That is very unusual,” he said. "We don't know the implications.” Scientists from the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Japan in the research and took samples to study.