Logbook: August 8

45°56.96'N / 130°0.38'W

A change in seafloor scenery
Bill Chadwick, Chief Scientist

Jason pilot, Bob Waters, maneuvering the ROV at the Endeavour hydrothermal field. (click image for larger view)

Yesterday, we finished our operations at Endeavour segment and made the 12-hour transit down to Axial Seamount where we will be working for most of the rest of the cruise.  After two successful Jason dives over three very full days, this gave us all an opportunity to catch our breath and prepare for the work ahead.  Time is precious on research vessels like Atlantis and since operations continue around the clock every day this can get hectic at times.

Axial Seamount is a very different place than Endeavour.  As its name implies, it is a large underwater mountain built up on the otherwise ridge-like morphology of the rest of the Juan de Fuca spreading center.  This is because Axial is located over a “hot spot” which supplies more magma to this submarine volcano than anywhere else along the ridge.  This is also what attracts our interest in this site.  It is the best place to conduct long-term experiments to learn about the interaction between an active volcano, seafloor hot springs, and the biological communities they sustain.  This is why we established a seafloor observatory called NeMO at this site in 1997.  The very next year an eruption occurred and we spent the following several years studying its impacts.  Now we are documenting the Axial’s build up to it next eruption.  We don’t know exactly when that will be, but it could be within the next few years and we want to learn as much as possible when that occurs.  Axial Seamount is the only submarine volcano in the world where these kinds of experiments are possible.

We’ll be providing more details about specific experiments that we are conducting here at Axial in the days to come