An Eye on the Seafloor

Natural History, Oct, 2000 by Robert (American businessperson and engineer) Anderson

Few of us will ever have a chance to visit a deep-sea ridge to witness a volcanic eruption as new oceanic crust is being formed. And since I'm slightly claustrophobic myself, the thought of descending a mile or more in a cramped submersible with tons of water pressing in all around me is not particularly inviting. But now, via the Internet, from my desk well above sea level, I can watch black chimneys spew scalding hot, mineral-laden seawater and observe tube worms and other exotic organisms colonize a submarine lava flow only a few years old.

The researchers at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (www.pmel .noaa.gov/vents) have focused on the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges because of their proximity to the northwest coast of the United States. At the ridges, where two tectonic plates are moving slowly apart and molten rock erupts to fill the void, NOAA is monitoring some of the most active spots, including a feature called the Axial Volcano. This submarine mountain was the site of a large eruption in January 1998. In July of this year, as part of the New Millennium Observatory (NeMo) Project (newport.pmel.noaa.gov/nemo), a camera was set up in the volcano's caldera to observe the growth of organisms taking advantage of the mineral-rich hydrothermal vents. While the research is rather technical, the site allows you to observe an ecosystem so remote it was not discovered until 1979, a decade after the moon landing.

Robert Anderson is a freelance science writer in Los Angeles.