A Deep Ocean Volcanic Glimpse Into How The Earth Was Born

by Delson Moo on December 23, 2009 · 0 Comments
in Lifestyle

A volcanic eruption of the West Mata volcano, discovered in May 2009, rewrites the science book of today and provides a completely different observation to better understand the fundamental processes that shapes our Earth, and even allows us to extrapolate into the history of how our Earth was born.

For the first time, scientists are able to see molten lava flowing from a deep-ocean seafloor volcano exploding into a 35-foot streams of red and gold, and these lava rises as bubbles as much as 3 feet across.

These scientises are funded by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and NSF (National Science Foundation) and the event occurred nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

“The whole ocean floor is created by this process of extruded lava but we’ve never seen it so we don’t know how rapidly this occurs, the volume of rock produced or how these eruptions build lava flows hundreds of meters thick,” says Robert Embly, a seafloor geologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oregon State Univ.’s Hatfield Marine Science Center. Embley, who was co-chief scientist on the expedition, says he’s waited his whole 42-year career for a chance to see this.

Seeing seafloor eruptions might also be a way to better understand eruptions that occur on land because scientists can get so much closer to the ones on the seafloor, Resing says.

To be present and being able to shoot such a spectacular sight is not something granted by luck.

Six months before the eruption, somewhere around Nov 2008, a very high concentration of hydrogen was recorded and scientist have since prepare themselves for this probably once in their life time shot of the century.

Luck does play a part too, for one thing, the recent eruption occurred so deep that water pressures tamped down gas explosions and limited how far molten lava spewed. The streams of lava seen shooting up to 35 feet in the water and volcanic rock fragments thrown 150 to 300 feet from the eruption would have been even more expansive in air. Also, oceanographers have unmanned, remotely operated vehicles that can maneuver near molten magma unlike anything available on land. During the expedition, for instance, the remotely operated vehicle worked within eight feet of the eruption site to insert instruments into billowing water and gases.

Enough said, let’s have a look at the videos taken:-
Video 1:

This is a sequence of explosive degassing events as bubbles of gas- rich magma burst, spewing lava fragments into the water. At same time, lava is being extruded out of the vent and down the slope. The area in view is about 6-10 feet across in an eruptive area approximately 100 yards that runs along the summit. Courtesy of National Science Foundation and NOAA.

Video 2:

This spectacular sequence is a closer view of the eruption with violent magma degassing events producing bright flashes of hot magma. Lava is blown up into the water before settling back to the seafloor, and large plugs of lava flow rapidly down the slope. In the foreground is the front of the Jason remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) with sampling hoses. The area in view is about 6-10 feet across in an eruptive area approximately 100 yards that runs along the summit. Courtesy of National Science Foundation and NOAA.

Want more?? See the photo slides here.

For full news coverage, please visit the NOAA website.

No related posts.