Contact: Dane Konop (research FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jeanne Kouhestani (NOAA Corps) 3/21/96
Scientists aboard the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship McArthur have observed suspected undersea volcanic activity off the northern Oregon coast that could provide unique insights into the process of seafloor volcanism. This is only the second time scientists have been able to reach an area of suspected activity while it was still in progress.
Just in the past several years have scientists discovered that there is a diverse community of bacteria and viruses that live below the seafloor in temperatures sometimes exceeding 100 degrees centigrade -- a discovery equivalent to finding life on another planet. Some of these microorganisms, which are carried to the seafloor surface through vents created by eruptions, have biological characteristics that make them very useful to the multi-million dollar biotechnical industry for biochemical, biotechnical and pharmaceutical applications.
NOAA scientists are also studying deep ocean volcanic activity because the heat and chemicals injected into the oceans by eruptions have significant, but as yet unquantified, impacts on the global ocean environment.
NOAA and university scientists aboard the McArthur made conductivity, temperature and depth measurements of hydrothermal venting at the site 100 miles off the Oregon coast in waters almost two miles deep from March 9-13, when bad weather ended operations. The ship returned to its base, NOAA's Pacific Marine Center in Seattle, March 14.
On March 11, scientists detected, sampled and mapped the first of several "megaplumes" of hot water rising from what is believed to be a major volcanic eruption on the underwater Gorda Ridge.
A second ship, the National Science Foundation research vessel Wecoma, will be dispatched to the site in early April for further investigations that may confirm a volcanic eruption using towed underwater cameras and other instruments.
Scientists at the Ocean Environmental Research Division of NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Newport, Oreg., first detected seismic signals Feb. 28 in the area characteristic of swarms of small seafloor earthquakes, in a unique program using the U.S. Navy's Sound Surveillance System for detecting submarines off the U.S. coast.
The Office of NOAA Corps Operations responded to the scientists' urgent request for an appropriately equipped research ship by dispatching the McArthur on March 7. The ship arrived at the site on the northernmost segment of the Gorda Ridge March 9.
"It is fortunate that NOAA still retains sufficient seagoing resources and personnel to take advantage of this unique opportunity. If NOAA Corps Commander Ken Perrin hadn't responded so quickly to our request, we might not have made it to the site in time to conduct our investigation," said Ed Baker, chief scientist of the expedition.
Although deep-sea volcanic eruptions account for more than 80 percent of the earth's volcanic activity, NOAA's recent use of the Navy's submarine detection system is the only way to determine when underwater eruptions are occurring. In June 1993, NOAA scientists were the first to detect, locate and measure a seafloor eruption, which occurred 270 miles off the northern Oregon coast in June 1993, a feat that until now had never been duplicated.