PMEL Earth-Ocean Interactions Program logo National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory Earth-Ocean Interactions Program

 

 

map of RAFOS track and plume, click for animationTracking an Event Plume
Gorda Ridge, 1996

An early response cruise to the site of the Gorda Ridge eruption in 1996 found a large event plume in March, and a second cruise found a different event plume in April. This second event plume became the first to be seeded and tracked with a neutrally buoyant RAFOS drifter float. The RAFOS drifter tracked the eddy-like rotation of event plumes and allowed us, for the first time, to resample the same plume 2 months later. Little chemical change was found between sampling periods, suggesting that event plumes have a long residence time as discrete entities in the deep ocean. The Gorda Ridge event was unusual in another way, in that venting was extinguished within 3 months of the eruption, much faster than at either Cleft or CoAxial. Click the image to view an animation of the float track from April to June, 1996.

Reference:
Lupton, J.E., E.T. Baker, N. Garfield, G.J. Massoth, R.A. Feely, J.P. Cowen, R.R. Greene, and T.A. Rago (1998): Tracking the evolution of a hydrothermal event plume with a RAFOS neutrally buoyant drifter. Science, 280, 1052-1055.