{"id":27033,"date":"2025-05-02T15:52:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T15:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27033"},"modified":"2025-05-02T16:27:00","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:27:00","slug":"volcanic-eruption-in-deep-ocean-ridge-is-witnessed-by-scientists-for-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27033","title":{"rendered":"Volcanic Eruption in Deep Ocean Ridge Is Witnessed by Scientists for First Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers diving in a submersible in the eastern Pacific realized that the landscape they had studied the day before had been glassed over by fresh lava.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Darkened terrain, punctuated by a single cluster of dead marine worms, was a sign of cooled fresh lava after an undersea volcanic eruption in waters about 1,300 miles west of Costa Rica.<\/span>Andrew Wozniak\/University of Delaware; HOV Alvin Team; NSF; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n
\n

Andrew Wozniak, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Delaware, struggled to process what his eyes were taking in. Dr. Wozniak was parked on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean beneath nearly 1.6 miles of water in Alvin, a research submersible<\/a>. As far as he could see lay a mostly barren expanse of jet-black rock.<\/p>\n

Just a day before, at this same spot, a vibrant ecosystem had thrived in the sweltering waters of the Tica hydrothermal vent, about 1,300 miles west of Costa Rica. Creatures inhabited every inch of the rocky seafloor, writhing in a patchwork of life. The crimson tips of giant tube worms waggled in the current, tangling around clusters of mussels. Buglike crustaceans scuttled through the scene while ghostly white fish languidly prowled for their next kill.<\/p>\n

Now, only a single cluster of tube worms remained in the blackened terrain, all dead. A haze of particulates filled the water as glints of bright orange lava flickered among the rocks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cMy brain was trying to understand what was going on,\u201d Dr. Wozniak said. \u201cWhere did things go?\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventually it clicked: He and the sub\u2019s other passengers were witnessing the tail end of a submarine volcanic eruption that had entombed the flourishing ecosystem under fresh lava rock.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
Vibrant signs of deep marine life on the same swath of seafloor before the eruption.<\/span>Andrew Wozniak\/University of Delaware; HOV Alvin Team; NSF; Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

This was the first time scientists had witnessed a clearly active eruption along the mid-ocean ridge, a volcanic mountain chain that stretches about 40,000 miles around the globe<\/a>, like the seams of a baseball<\/a>. The ridge marks the edges of tectonic plates as they pull apart, driving volcanic eruptions and creating fresh crust, or the layer of the Earth we live on, beneath the sea. About 80 percent<\/a> of Earth\u2019s volcanism happens on the seafloor, with the vast majority<\/a> occurring along the mid-ocean ridge. Before this latest sighting, only two underwater eruptions had been caught in action, and neither was along a mid-ocean ridge, said Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at Oregon State University who was not on the research team.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers diving in a submersible in the eastern Pacific realized that the landscape they had studied the day before had been glassed over by fresh lava.Darkened terrain, punctuated by a single cluster of dead marine worms, was a sign of cooled fresh lava after an undersea volcanic eruption in waters about 1,300 miles west of Costa Rica.Andrew Wozniak\/University of Delaware; HOV Alvin Team; NSF; Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionAndrew Wozniak, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Delaware, struggled to process what his eyes were taking in. Dr. Wozniak was parked on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean beneath nearly 1.6 miles of water in Alvin, a research submersible. As far as he could see lay a mostly barren expanse of jet-black rock.Just a day before, at this same spot, a vibrant ecosystem had thrived in the sweltering waters of the Tica hydrothermal vent, about 1,300 miles west of Costa Rica. Creatures inhabited every inch of the rocky seafloor, writhing in a patchwork of life. The crimson tips of giant tube worms waggled in the current, tangling around clusters of mussels. Buglike crustaceans scuttled through the scene while ghostly white fish languidly prowled for their next kill.Now, only a single cluster of tube worms remained in the blackened terrain, all dead. A haze of particulates filled the water as glints of bright orange lava flickered among the rocks.\u201cMy brain was trying to understand what was going on,\u201d Dr. Wozniak said. \u201cWhere did things go?\u201dEventually it clicked: He and the sub\u2019s other passengers were witnessing the tail end of a submarine volcanic eruption that had entombed the flourishing ecosystem under fresh lava rock.Vibrant signs of deep marine life on the same swath of seafloor before the eruption.Andrew Wozniak\/University of Delaware; HOV Alvin Team; NSF; Woods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionThis was the first time scientists had witnessed a clearly active eruption along the mid-ocean ridge, a volcanic mountain chain that stretches about 40,000 miles around the globe, like the seams of a baseball. The ridge marks the edges of tectonic plates as they pull apart, driving volcanic eruptions and creating fresh crust, or the layer of the Earth we live on, beneath the sea. About 80 percent of Earth\u2019s volcanism happens on the seafloor, with the vast majority occurring along the mid-ocean ridge. Before this latest sighting, only two underwater eruptions had been caught in action, and neither was along a mid-ocean ridge, said Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at Oregon State University who was not on the research team.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27035,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27033"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27038,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27033\/revisions\/27038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}