Using the latest in deep-sea exploration technology, British scientists are to investigate the world’s deepest undersea volcanic ridge, 6000 metres down at the bottom of the Cayman Trough in the Caribbean. The United Kingdom’s newest dedicated scientific research vessel, RRS James Cook, will devote two month-long cruises to exploring the Cayman Trough, employing the remotely-operated Isis submarine and the autonomous underwater vehicle Autosub6000.

The scientific team is led by Dr John Copley of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, where RRS James Cook is based. The primary focus of the project is the study of the geochemistry and biology of undersea volcanic vents, and the investigation of hydrothermal processes where the Earth’s mantle is directly exposed to seawater. Hydrothermal vents in such cases, says Dr Copley, ‘could be hotter than 500C (930F), and if they are that hot, they will probably have quite different chemistry and life forms - we expect to find new species’.

Image: RRS James Cook at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton (credit: National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, used with permission).

News
Sub to make deep Caribbean dive - BBC News, 9 August 2008
Robot submarine to dive deep in the Caribbean - ZDNet.com, 10 August 2008

Information
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton - the UK centre for oceanographical research
RRS James Cook - information from the National Oceanography Centre
RRS James Cook Homepage - an unofficial site by a member of the James Cook technical team

A team of researchers has discovered evidence of explosive volcanism 4km down on the Arctic Ocean seabed, challenging established notions of the nature of volcanic activity at great ocean depths.

The research team, led by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, found jagged, glassy rock fragments spread out across a 10km² area around a series of small volcanic cones along the Gakkel Ridge, part of the spreading mid-ocean ridge system beneath the Arctic ice. ‘These are the first pyroclastic deposits we’ve ever found in such deep water, at oppressive pressures that inhibit the formation of steam, and many people thought this was not possible’, said Woods Hole geophysicist Rob Reves-Sohn.

A paper detailing the findings of the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition is published in the 26 June 2008 issue of Nature.

Information
Global Volcanism Program: East Gakkel Ridge volcanoes - summary information for the Gakkel Ridge volcanoes, excitingly dubbed ‘unnamed’ by the GVP

News
Under ice - Science News, 25 June 2008
Deep-sea volcanism on the Gakkel Ridge - Nature, 26 June 2008 (editor’s summary)
Geologists discover signs of volcanoes blowing their tops in the deep ocean - Innovations Report, 27 June 2008
Fire under the ice - EurekAlert, 27 June 2008

National Geographic News has an article today about the submarine volcano recently discovered off the south-west of Iceland by University of Iceland volcanologist Ármann Höskuldsson:

The structure turned out to be an active volcano that rises about 3,300 feet (1,000 meters) above the surrounding sections of the ridge, coming within 1,300 feet (400 meters) of the surface. At its base the volcano is approximately 30 miles (50 kilometers) across. The peak contains a depression known as a caldera that is 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide.

The size of the edifice, says Höskuldsson, indicates that it is being fed by its own magma chamber. Next year he and his team are planning to use a submarine to explore the volcano, hoping to clarify the anomaly of why it has developed in a region where tectonic plates pulling apart normally prevent the growth of such large volcanic structures.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - volcanoes of Iceland and the Arctic Ocean
Volcanoes in Iceland - University of Iceland Institute of Earth Sciences

News
Giant undersea volcano found off Iceland - National Geographic News, 22 April 2008

English-language Icelandic news website Iceland Review Online has another report on the large submarine volcano identified by Ármann Höskuldsson off the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland, written in what’s perhaps best described as an informal, lively style:

Bubbling hot underneath 1,500 meters of water, a volcanic caldera (the lava spitting mouth of a volcano) measuring 10 kilometers in diameter simmers sinisterly. Scratching their heads, a group of Icelandic scientists wonder how it got there in the first place.

Taking a few minutes off from scratching his head, Höskuldsson warns that ‘People shouldn’t be surprised if there would be an extensive volcanic eruption underwater there soon. Nothing has happened for hundreds of years and it is in fact only a matter of time before there will be an eruption’.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - volcanoes of Iceland and the Arctic Ocean
Volcanoes in Iceland - University of Iceland Institute of Earth Sciences

News
A volcanic surprise - Iceland Review Online, 12 April 2008

Iceland Review Online reports today that a large submarine volcano has been found off the Reykjanes peninsula in southwest Iceland.

Volcanologist Ármann Höskuldsson from the University of Iceland and a team of scientists recently discovered a more than 50-square-kilometer volcano off Reykjanes peninsula, southwest Iceland, and expect it to erupt at any time. In the center of the volcano there is a caldera measuring ten kilometers in diameter.

The presence of such a large caldera volcano in an area of ocean ridge volcanism is ‘a surprise’. The volcano reported here is presumably part of the Reykjaneshryggur submarine volcanic system, although the article doesn’t say so.

Höskuldsson and his team will be presenting a paper on their discovery at the IAVCEI 2008 general assembly to be held in Reykjavík in August.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - volcanoes of Iceland and the Arctic Ocean
Volcanoes in Iceland - University of Iceland Institute of Earth Sciences

News
Giant underwater volcano discovered in Iceland - Iceland Review Online, 8 April 2008

From Stuff.co.nz comes a report that a New Zealand volcano is currently erupting. About 1000 kilometres north-east of the North Island of New Zealand is the NZ territory of the Kermadec Islands, and the active volcano concerned is located underwater a further 600 kilometres north of them. Monowai, a seamount, which was only confirmed as a volcano in 1977 (after a survey carried out by HMNZS Monowai), has apparently been erupting regularly over recent years and may have collapsed in on itself in May 2002, in a manner similar to Mount St Helens. Most recently the seamount produced a ‘large seismic event’ on 8 February which was recorded by Laboratoire de Geophysique scientists in French Polynesia.

Information
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program - summary information for Monowai Seamount (0402-05-)
New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2005 Expedition - investigated submarine volcanoes including Monowai

News
NZ volcano erupting - under water - Stuff.co.nz, 28 March 2008