EOI scientists will be going out to Axial Seamount on a sea-going expedition, August 18-27, 2018. Axial is an active submarine volcano located 300 miles west of the Oregon coast. They will be making dives with ROV Jason and the MBARI Mapping AUV from the R/V Kilo Moana.
This expedition will be focused on three main areas:
1) Monitoring the inflation of the volcano caused by magma rising into the volcanic system from below between eruptions
2) The chemistry of hydrothermal vent fluids and how they change with time
3) Exploration of a new hydrothermal vent field, possibly with active black smoker chimneys, that was discovered recently with high resolution AUV bathymetric mapping.
Follow the cruise blog for daily updates at: http://axial2018.blogspot.com/