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Lava flows over striated pillow basalts at summit of Axial Volcano Seamount
Dark, black glassy lava flows over striated pillow basalts at the summit of the Axial Volcano Seamount during an eruption that took place in 2011. Here, at a depth of ~1500 meters, the ocean waters are near freezing. Molten lava spilling onto the seafloor was instantly quenched, turning the outermost layer into glass. This image was taken with the Canadian remotely operated vehicle ROPOS (Dive 163) during the University of Washington VISIONS'14 expedition in 2013. The cruise, which focused on deploying and testing 22,000 meters of extension cables, marked the initial installation phase of the National Science Foundation's underwater cabled observatory, a component of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).
The OOI includes a networked infrastructure of science-driven sensor systems to measure the physical, chemical, geological and biological variables in the ocean and seafloor. Greater knowledge of these variables is vital for improved detection and forecasting of environmental changes and their effects on biodiversity, coastal ecosystems and climate.
You can read more about the expedition Here; or, to learn more about OOI, visit the initiative's website Here. (Date of Image: August 9, 2013)
Credit: Deborah Kelley and John R. Delaney, University of Washington; Canadian Scientific Submergence Facility; NSF
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