Long-term eruptive activity at a submarine arc volcano

• Published in: Nature Vol. 441; no. 7092; pp. 494 - 497
• Main Authors: Embley, Robert W, Chadwick, William W, Baker, Edward T, Butterfield, David A, Resing, Joseph A, de Ronde, Cornel E.J, Tunnicliffe, Verena, Lupton, John E, Juniper, S. Kim, Rubin, Kenneth H, Stern, Robert J, Lebon, Geoffrey T, Nakamura, Ko-ichi, Merle, Susan G, Hein, James R, Wiens, Douglas A, Tamura, Yoshihiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing 25-05-2006; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Animals; Benthic environment; Crystalline rocks; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Ecosystem; Environmental aspects; Eruptions; Exact sciences and technology; Geography; Geological Phenomena; Geology; Habitats; Hot spots (geology); Igneous and metamorphic rocks petrology, volcanic processes, magmas; Marine; Mid-ocean ridges; Natural history; Observations; Oceans and Seas; Organic chemistry; Sampling; Submarine volcanoes; Submarines; Sulfur; Time Factors; Underwater exploration; Volcanic activity; Volcanic ash; Volcanic eruptions; Volcanic Eruptions - statistics & numerical data; Volcanic hotspots; Volcanoes; Volcanological research; Water depth; Mariana Islands; Micronesia; Guam; ISEW, Pacific, Northern Mariana Is; ISEW, Pacific, Northern Mariana Is., Rota; bathymetric maps; volcanic ash; biota; activity; plumes; volcanic rocks; volcanic arcs; sampling; igneous rocks; hydrothermal activity; submarine volcanism; Oceania; pyroclastics; depth; submarine photography; observations; lapilli; sulfur
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687; 1476-4679
• DOI: 10.1038/nature04762

Three-quarters of the Earth's volcanic activity is submarine, located mostly along the mid-ocean ridges, with the remainder along intraoceanic arcs and hotspots at depths varying from greater than 4,000 m to near the sea surface. Most observations and sampling of submarine eruptions have been indirect, made from surface vessels or made after the fact. We describe here direct observations and sampling of an eruption at a submarine arc volcano named NW Rota-1, located 60 km northwest of the island of Rota (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). We observed a pulsating plume permeated with droplets of molten sulphur disgorging volcanic ash and lapilli from a 15-m diameter pit in March 2004 and again in October 2005 near the summit of the volcano at a water depth of 555 m (depth in 2004). A turbid layer found on the flanks of the volcano (in 2004) at depths from 700 m to more than 1,400 m was probably formed by mass-wasting events related to the eruption. Long-term eruptive activity has produced an unusual chemical environment and a very unstable benthic habitat exploited by only a few mobile decapod species. Such conditions are perhaps distinctive of active arc and hotspot volcanoes.