http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5165946/
WASHINGTON - Hoping to learn more about undersea volcanoes, scientists
sent a camera-equipped submarine down to take a look. They got more than
they bargained for, witnessing a deep-sea eruption.
"At first we really didn't understand what was going on," said Bob
Embley, chief 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 to sample it. ... It would
not have been a good place to be in a manned submersible."
Caustic material damages camera ---
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 backed away from the volcano.
The volcano, with a rim 1,800 feet (550 meters) below the sea surface,
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 are
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 next, seeing things we
had never witnessed before," he said.
Studying geology and marine life
The trip, which ended April 18, included studies of geology and marine
life in both deep and shallow areas.
In upper levels of the oceans, life draws energy from 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 (180 meters) 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
participated in the work and took home samples to study.
Carbon dioxide released ---
In another area of the Mariana Trench, the researchers found bubbles of
liquid carbon dioxide being released into the sea, enlarging up to a
thousand times and turning to gas as they drifted upward in the sea.
Steve Hammond, chief scientist for NOAA's Office of Ocean Exploration,
termed the find "a natural laboratory where the effects of carbon
dioxide on marine organisms can be studied."
The liquid form of carbon dioxide is present due to the great depth and
the resulting pressure at the site. At 5,263 feet, about a mile (1.6
kilometers) deep, the pressure from the water column is 160 times more
than the air pressure at sea level.
A similar effort a year earlier gathered preliminary data on the area
near Guam and the Mariana Islands. Next year, Embley said, the research
will focus on underwater volcanoes north of New Zealand.
Mysteries under the sea ---
He pointed out that although most of the planet is covered with water
the undersea regions have not been thoroughly studied in the past.
"Out there on our own planet there are volcanoes erupting under the
ocean, putting chemicals into the ocean, interchanging gases (into the
water and air), affecting biology. We should know about these things,"
Embley said.
"Microbes in extreme environments produce enzymes that could be of
medical use," he added.
The research was funded by the NOAA Ocean Exploration Program and the
Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
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