Dr. Andrew Wozniak ’96 and Team First to Witness Volcanic Eruption in Ocean Ridge

According to the University of Delaware, they “arrived on site on April 11 and began a series of dives in the research submersible Alvin, which is owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) for the entire oceanographic community.” The goal of the expedition was to study the influence of hydrothermal vents on the movement of dissolved organic carbon through the deep ocean. Dr. Wozniak and colleagues sailed on a ship, the R/V Atlantis, before setting out in the Alvin sub.
 

On the second day, the researchers realized that the landscape they had studied the day before had been glassed over by fresh lava. According to the article, “It was an incredible sight to see,” they said. “All the life and features that we had seen just a few days before, wiped away. I can’t believe we were so lucky to have been there within a few hours of eruption.” He and the sub’s other passengers were witnessing the tail end of a submarine volcanic eruption. The team learned after returning to the ship that sensitive microphones aboard the Atlantis had detected the volcanic eruption earlier in the day. It registered as a series of low frequency booms and campfire-like crackle.

Before this latest sighting, only two underwater eruptions had been caught in action, and neither was along a mid-ocean ridge. Observing such an event live offers a unique opportunity for scientists to study one of our planet’s most fundamental processes: the birth of new seafloor, and its dynamic effects on ocean chemistry, ecosystems, microbial life and more.

The University of Delaware covered the exciting news with an article and pictures that can be found here.