Oceanographers using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason discovered and recorded the first video and still images of a deep-sea volcano actively erupting molten lava on the seafloor.

Jason, designed and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the National Deep Submergence Facility, utilized a prototype, high-definition still and video camera to capture the powerful event nearly 4,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, in an area bounded by Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Collasius led a team that operated the unmanned, tethered vehicle from a control van on the research vessel and used a joystick to "fly" Jason over the seafloor to within 10 feet of the erupting volcano. Its two robotic arms collected samples of rocks, hot spring waters, microbes, and macro biological specimens.

Through its fiber optic tether, ROV Jason transmitted-high definition video of the eruption as it was occurring. The unique camera system, developed and operated by the Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab at WHOI, was installed on Jason for the expedition to acquire high quality imagery of the seafloor.

The AIVL designs, develops, and operates high resolution imaging systems for scientific monitoring, survey, and entertainment purposes. AIVL imagery has been used in several IMAX films and hundreds of television programs and documentaries.

The video from the research expedition, which departed Western Samoa aboard the RV Thomas Thompson on May 5, 2009, was shown for the first time at the American Geophysical Union fall meeting in San Francisco.

"Less than 24 hours after leaving port, we located the ongoing eruption and observed, for the first time, molten lava flowing across the deep-ocean seafloor, glowing bubbles three feet across, and explosions of volcanic rock," reported Joe Resing, a chemical oceanographer at the University of Washington and NOAA, and chief scientist on the NOAA- and National Science Foundation-funded expedition.

For more than a decade, monitoring systems have allowed scientists to listen for seafloor eruptions but there has always been a time lag between hearing an eruption and assembling a team and a research vessel to see it. This has meant that scientists have always observed eruptions after the fact.

"We saw a lot of interesting phenomena, but we never saw an eruption because it happens so quickly," said Robert Embley, a NOAA PMEL marine geologist and co-chief scientist on the expedition. "As geologists, you want to see the process in action. You learn a lot more about it watching the process."

"The orange glow of magma is visible on the left of the sulfur-laden plume. The area shown in this image is approximately six feet across in an eruptive area approximately the length of a football field that runs along the summit. (Credit: Image courtesy of NSF, NOAA, and WHOI Advanced Imaging and Visualization Lab)"

Source: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution