Posts Tagged ‘Axial Seamount’
Close-up View of An Active Hydrothermal Vent Now Easily Accessible
Now accessible on OOI’s Data Explorer: 47,000 hours of video from a high-definition (HD) camera at an active hydrothermal vent and underwater volcano, 1500 meters below the ocean’s surface!
The HD camera has been streaming live video since 2015, offering a close-up look at what’s been happening within the caldera of Axial Seamount, a highly active underwater volcano about 300 miles off the coast of Oregon. The SubC 1Cam video camera was modified by the Applied Physics Lab (APL) at the University of Washington for deployment on OOI’s Regional Cabled Array (RCA) in the NE Pacific Ocean. The camera is connected via a roughly 4 km dedicated 10 Gb extension cable that runs across the caldera from the camera in the ASHES vent field to Primary Node PN3B located near the eastern edge of the caldera. From there imagery are streamed at the speed of light over 521 km of submarine fiber optic cable to the shore station in Pacific City, OR.
[media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/HD-Camera.jpg" link="#"]The HD camera (orange triangular frame) images the 14 ft-tall actively venting hot spring deposit ‘Mushroom’ located within the caldera of Axial Seamount. Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1730; V14.[/media-caption]Up until recently, the footage has been available on the OOI raw data server in 14-minute increments as both high resolution MOV files and compressed MP4 formats, but the imagery was not easily reviewed or searchable. To make this unique nearly decade of footage more readily available to researchers, a new gallery feature on Data Explorer was created that allows researchers to easily view, search, and download the stunning video. All files created over each 24-hour period are used to create a sped-up, compressed, and time-stamped preview video allowing rapid overviews of daily events. Associated metadata and quick links provide access to the raw and log files, and a higher-resolution version of the preview is also available for download.
“The camera faces an active hydrothermal edifice called Mushroom that is completely encased in a dense biological community thriving in fluids emanating from the chimney walls,” explained Michael Vardaro, a research consultant for the RCA, who has been involved in OOI since construction began in 2011. “Mushroom hosts an active chemosynthetic community with 300 ºC hydrothermal fluids streaming out its top and from a small, highly dynamic chimney at its base. The camera allows the research community to see how the flow of hydrothermal fluid and the activity of all the different creatures living on it change over time, as well as the growth and evolution of the sulfide structure.”
Vardaro also said that the video allows viewers to watch what is happening in the short term. “You can catch predation events that include little scale worms nibbling on the gills of the tube worms. You can observe sea spiders [pycnogonids] crawling around the base of the chimney and watch as new vent openings develop. It’s a very changeable environment, because as the hydrothermal fluid hits the cold seawater, the metals and other chemicals dissolved in the superheated water precipitate out as solid minerals, creating fragile projections that then repeatedly crumble over time as the flow changes. The camera imagery provides important insights into linkages among geological, chemical and biological process at seismically active underwater volcano that has erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015 and is poised to erupt again.”
[embed]https://youtu.be/oiDxkHWB3rI[/embed]The chimney stands about 14 feet high. The camera sits on a tripod at the base of the chimney with a pan and tilt unit. It follows an automated, 14-minute routine with the camera moving up, down and across the chimney and water column, stopping at pre-selected key areas of interest. What’s more, the APL team onshore can stop and alter the viewpoint if something interesting is happening or a question needs answering. “The Data Explorer now offers a hugely rich dataset of video footage extremely rare in mid-ocean ridge settings that offers a unique window into what is happening on the seafloor at an active hydrothermal vent site,” Vardaro added. “As development on the gallery continues, we also plan to add annotations and eventually incorporate machine learning and event detection to tag interesting biological features or significant changes to the site”.
In addition to the Data Explorer access, the live video stream is available every three hours for 14-minutes online (at 2:00, 5:00, 8:00, and 11:00 EDT & PDT). The camera also runs for 24 hours straight on the 10th and 20th of the month, with a 72-hour run on the 1st-3rd of the month as a means of gaining a fuller picture of activity at the site.
[embed]https://youtu.be/VjqduffxNyU[/embed]
Read More
Is Axial Seamount Napping?
Oregon State University Researcher Bill Chadwick attempted to answer this question in a poster he presented at AGU in December 2023. Chadwick has been watching the “ups and downs” of Axial Seamount for more than 30 years, including its last eruption in 2015. He and other observers monitor the seamount’s activity using bottom pressure recorders (BPR) connected to the US National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative (NSF OOI) Regional Cabled Array (RCA), operated by the University of Washington, along with additional uncabled BPRs and Mobile Pressure Recorder surveys at an array of seafloor benchmarks every two years using a remotely operated vehicle.
[media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/BPR-scaled.jpg" link="#"]A repeatable inflation-deflation cycle has been documented at Axial Seamount over the last 30 years, using autonomous, battery-powered Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPRs), and later cabled-BPRs like this one connected to the OOI-RCA. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF, 2014.[/media-caption]“Axial Seamount has erupted three times in the last 25 years. As of March 2024, the seamount is 90-95% reinflated to the level it reached before the 2015 eruption, so we’re getting close to the eruption triggering point,” said Chadwick. “But on the other hand, the rate of inflation, which started high right after the 2015 eruption, has been decreasing and decreasing since then.”
The inflation rate reached nearly zero last summer (just slightly positive at ~1 cm/year, the lowest rate seen at Axial). “At that very low rate, it was hard to tell how long it would take to reach the 2015 inflation threshold,” Chadwick added.
Since October 2023, however, the rate of uplift has been slowly increasing. University of Washington Researcher William Wilcock’s Axial Seamount Earthquake Catalog page also indicates the seismicity has been on the rise since October 2023, with a large swarm of >600 events on 10 February.
“Since October 2023, the rate of inflation has increased a bit to 5-6 cm/yr, which is still quite low compared to rates we’ve seen over the last 25 years but seems to indicate that Axial may be coming out of its slumber of last summer,” Chadwick explained. “And the earthquake swarm on Feb 10 also seems to support that notion.”
Longer-term eruptive history documented by mapping and dating lava flows at the summit shows that Axial has produced at least 50 eruptions in the last 800 years, (Clague et al., 2013), an average of one every 15-18 years, suggesting that the current lull at Axial might not be long.
“I’m hoping that the rate of inflation will continue to increase, but it’s too early to tell. Anything could happen,“ Chadwick added. “I’m more hopeful than I was a year ago that the next eruption may not be too far off but only time will tell!”
[media-caption path="https://oceanobservatories.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Chadwick-dots.jpg" link="#"]Map showing the locations of Mobile Pressure Recorder (MPR) benchmarks, as well as the autonomous and cabled Bottom Pressure Recorders (BPR). The red dots are the BPRs connected to OOI Regional Cabled Array.[/media-caption]
Reference: Clague, D.A., et al., (2013) Geologic history of the summit of Axial Seamount, Juan de Fuca Ridge, Geochem Geophys, Geosystems, doi: 10.1002/ggge.20240.
Read More
Long-Term Monitoring of Gas Emissions at Southern Hydrate Ridge
Identifying the parameters that control or influence seabed methane release is important to refining understanding of the carbon cycle. Data from the Regional Cabled Array are providing time-series required to quantify the flux of methane from the seafloor.
Read MoreFacilitating Observatory-Based Subseafloor Science
Data flowing from the Regional Cabled Array forms an unparalleled foundation to understand the relationships between microbial, hydrological, geochemical, and geophysical processes in active oceanic crust. Proposed Axial drilling will provide a unique opportunity to determine the nature of subseafloor hydrological properties and develop a 3-D understanding of subseafloor processes in unsedimented crust.
Read MoreDiscovery of Axial Seamount Deep Melt-Mush Feeder Conduit
Recent observations at Axial Seamount provide new seismic images of the deep magma plumbing system, revealing a stacked sill complex beneath the main magma reservoir of this submarine volcano. The discovery of this deep melt-mush conduit at Axial, where long-term monitoring observations are supported by the Regional Cabled Array, is providing new understanding of magmatic systems on Earth.
Read MoreAxial Seamount Helping Scientists Forecast Eruptions
On March 20, 2023, Oregon Public Radio reported about scientists work at Axial Seamounts, a seamount and submarine volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, about 480 kilometers off the coast of Oregon. The story details how bottom pressure recorders connected to OOI’s Regional Cabled Array are helping reveal the inner workings of the Axial Seamount and helping scientists forecast when it might erupt next. Featured are Oregon State University Professor Bill Chadwick, University of North Carolina Professor Scott Nooner, Oregon State University Assistant Professor Jeff Beeson, and College of Charleston Assistant Professor Haley Cabannis.
Access the article here.
Read MoreStudent Videos Give Inside Look at Research and Safety
Four students from Queens College were aboard the R/V Marcus G Langseth for a recent ten-day research expedition to the Axial Seamount, a submarine volcano in the northeast Pacific Ocean that erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015. The students were assisting a National Science Foundation Research team that is deploying autonomous ocean-bottom seismometers on OOI’s Regional Cabled Array as part of a two-year experiment taking place within the predicted time window of the next eruption.
The NSF-funded project is led by William Wilcock from the University of Washington and co-led by Felix Waldhauser, Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, who served as chief scientist on this expedition, Maya Tolstoy (UW), and Yen Joe Tan from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who also was onboard.
Queens college graduate student Jacqueline Singer was onboard to further work towards her master’s degree. She teamed up with undergraduates Rania Taib, Hema Muni, and Julia Sandke to create two videos – one explains their research, while the other provides an insider’s look at safety issues at sea. In the first video, the students give an in-depth look at how they deployed 15 autonomous ocean-bottom seismometers and how they work. In the second video, the students explain the importance of survival suit training, followed by a humorous look at the complex movements needed to successfully suit up in a “Gumby suit.”
Columbia University PhD candidate Theresa Sawi also provides a written account of the expedition here.
https://vimeo.com/user110037220/studentsataxialseamount
https://vimeo.com/user110037220/gumbysuitdemo
Read MoreCatching the Next Eruption of Axial Seamount
Theresa Sawi, a PhD student in Columbia’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, shares her reflections and more about the science behind a six-day research expedition to Axial Seamount. She gives a behind the scenes look as researchers from Columbia University on the R/V Marcus G Langseth deployed 15 autonomous ocean-bottom seismometers atop Axial Seamount, a submarine volcano in the northeast Pacific Ocean that erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015. The research expedition was part of a two-year experiment taking place within the predicted time window of the next eruption.
The seismometers were added to OOI’s Regional Cabled Array. To read Sawi’s account, click here.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Langseth.png" link="#"]15 scientists were onboard the Langseth, with ranks ranging from professor to undergraduate researcher. Credit: Theresa Sawi.[/media-caption]Read More
Axial Seamount Continues to Reveal Its Secrets
Adapted and condensed by OOI from Chadwick et al., 2022, doi:/10.1029/2021GC010153.
Axial Seamount is the longest monitored mid-ocean ridge volcano, providing new insights into the relationships among magma supply, uplift-deflation behavior, and seismicity leading to and follow eruptions. Results are as summarized here.
[media-caption path="/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Axial.png" link="#"]a) Cross section cartoon showing shallow magma chamber beneath Axial fed by a series of stacked sills. Upward migrating of melt through the sills results increases pressure in the shallow chamber causing uplift and associated earthquakes. b) Exponential increase in earthquakes per meter of uplift since the 2015 eruption. c) Earthquakes per meter of uplift before March 12, 2015 follow an exponential increase, while post this day earthquakes follow a linear trend leading up to the April 24, 2015 eruption. (After Chadwick et al., 2022; Figures 6 and 13).[/media-caption]The magma supply rate has changed significantly over periods of months to years. Since the 2015 eruption, the summit of the volcano has been inflating at a decreasing rate. This re-inflation was punctuated by eight discrete short-term deflation events occurring over 1-3 weeks, approximately every 4-6 months from August 2016 to May 2019. These deflation events were coincident with an abrupt decrease in seismic activity, which did not pick up until reinflation resumed. In contrast, the long-term monitoring indicates that there was a surge in magma supply between 2011 and 2015, resulting in the two eruptions closely spaced in time.
Although the summit of the volcano has inflated 85%-90% of its pre 2015 eruption level, the geodetic and seismic monitoring suggests that the magma supply rate has been waning since 2015, pushing the forecast for the next eruption out 4-9 years. The data since 2015 also show that the deformation and seismic activity are tightly coupled, showing an exponential increase in seismic activity per unit of uplift. A significant conclusion from this study is that the transition from an exponential to linear increase in seismic activity to total uplift may indicate impending crustal failure between the shallow magma chamber and the seafloor. In concert, these results may lead to more refined forecasting of future eruptions of this highly active volcano and the testing of hypotheses concerning the short-term deflation events.
__________________________________________________________
Chadwick, W.W., Jr., W.S.D. Wilcock, S.L. Nooner, J.W Beeson, A.M. Sawyer, and T.-K. Lau (2022) Geodetic monitoring at Axial Seamount since its 2015 eruption reveals a waning magma supply and tightly linked rates of deformation and seismicity. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 23, e2021GC01053.
Read MoreRCA Recording Swarm of Earthquakes in Real Time
On December 7, 2021 a swarm of earthquakes began on the Blanco Transform Fault, a major plate boundary at the southern end of the Juan de Fuca Plate. The ongoing seismic swarm is being tracked live by the National Science Foundation’s underwater observatory, the Regional Cabled Array (RCA). The RCA is a component of NSF’s Ocean Observatories Initiative and is operated and maintained by the University of Washington. It includes ~900 km of high power and high bandwidth submarine fiber optic cables that stretch from Pacific City, OR out to the most active volcano off the coast “Axial Seamount” that erupted in 1998, 2011 and again in 2015. A second cable heads south along the Cascadia Subduction Zone and turns east along the Cascadia Margin off Newport, OR. Over 150 instruments on the seafloor and on instrumented moorings provide real-time data flow to shore at the speed of light. A suite of seismometers at the summit of Axial Seamount lit up on December 7, 2021 as the seismic swarm began along the Blanco. This live feed was developed by the UW Applied Physics Laboratory.
Read More