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NeMO
Date:
July 4, 2000
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| Science
Report: Our first dive on the 1998 lava flow at Axial volcano (ROPOS dive 543) was to the Marker 33 area. Marker 33 is located near the eruptive vent that fed the 1998 lava flow and has been one of the more robust hot spring sites since the eruption. We will be revisiting many sites on the 1998 lava flow because it gives us the chance to study a "clean slate" where brand new hydrothermal vent sites have formed and where new biological communities are colonizing. Hydrothermal venting was still active at Marker 33, although it appeared to be somewhat diminished from last year. On the other hand more kinds of vent animals have colonized the Marker 33 area and two nearby sites, Cloud and Nascent, since last year. Bacterial traps, OSMO samplers, temperature probes, and a time-lapse camera that had been in place since last year were retrieved during the dive, some using an elevator mooring that will be recovered tomorrow. Later in the day we made a rendezvous with the research vessel Atlantis (which is working further north on the Juan de Fuca Ridge) to transfer personnel and equipment.Tonight, ROPOS is preparing for its next dive, this one to ASHES, a high-temperature vent field in the southwest corner of Axial caldera. |
Marker 33 site at NeMO. Large object in background is a time-lapse camera, foreground shows the osmosamplers and on the left are bacteria traps. |
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