NOAA TUNES IN TO UNDERWATER ERUPTION

April 5, 2001 — NOAA scientists are keeping their ears open as they monitor an underwater eruption that appears to have begun Tuesday evening about 100 miles off the coast of southern Oregon and northern California. (Click NOAA image of previous undersea volcanic eruption for larger view.)

"We are hoping that this will be one of those rare times that we get to study what happens to all aspects of the ocean when one of these events takes place," said Stephen Hammond, an oceanographer at NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Newport, Ore. A team of NOAA and National Science Foundation ocean scientists are considering a cruise to the site of the suspected eruption.

Underwater volcanic eruptions are the most common on earth, but because they typically occur very deep in the ocean, very little is known about them or what happens when they occur.

NOAA, through its acoustical monitoring project, led by PMEL scientist Chris Fox, uses the U.S. Navy's Sound Surveillance System hydrophones to detect deep volcanic eruptions and then locate them so NOAA scientists and their academic colleagues can study them while they are still active. PMEL began this monitoring effort in 1991. Scientists from NOAA's Vents program have detected and studied three previous eruptions in the northeast Pacific.

Before NOAA began its underwater monitoring, ocean scientists could not study what happens to the ocean's chemical, physical, and biological environments when an underwater volcano erupts.

"We detected an eruption in this area before," said Eddie Bernard, PMEL director. "In 1996 one occurred sightly north of this current event. Among the interesting discoveries that resulted from the study of that eruption was the number of extremophiles—microscopic bacteria-like creatures that thrive in very hot and very chemical-rich subseafloor environments—that were entrained in large hot water plumes generated by the eruption."

These organisms are of interest because of their potential biotechnical and pharmaceutical applications.

Hammond noted that as with any such event, there is no way to know how long it will last or how intense it may be.

"It may stop abruptly, or it may be the biggest event yet. We don't know, but Fox's team will follow it until the end," Hammond said.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA's Deep Ocean Seismicity from Hydroacoustic Monitoring

Monitoring the Global Ocean Through Underwater Acoustics

NOAA's Vents Program

NOAA's New Millennium Observatory — Exploring Undersea Volcanoes

Photos of Undersea Volcanoes

Media Contact:
Jana Goldman, NOAA Research, (301) 713-2483 ext. 181

 

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