Oregon State Surveys Underwater Volcanic Range, Watches Eruption

[hatrack]

NEWPORT, Ore. -- Imagine the lofty Cascade Range of Oregon at the bottom of the sea, and you can pretty much picture the geography of the Mariana Arc south of Japan.

Oregon State University oceanographic researchers just completed a study of undersea volcanoes in the Mariana Arc, and they said some of the volcanic cones look like an underwater version of Mount Hood, while others resemble Crater Lake.

But instead of forested slopes, fresh alpine air and snow-capped peaks, the undersea volcanic mountain range features plumes of molten sulfur, life forms based on chemical energy instead of sunlight, "black smokers" churning hydrothermal fluids and sometimes explosive underwater eruptions. The expedition, which recorded a small undersea eruption of an active volcano, was considered a big success, said Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist with the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resource Studies at Oregon State.

EDIT

"We were just going from one incredible event to the next, seeing things we had never witnessed before," said Chadwick, a key researcher in the expedition largely funded by NOAA's Ocean Exploration Program. "It was very exciting, and quite remarkable in that every volcano we visited seemed to be unique in its own way," Chadwick said."

EDIT