|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|
Prof’s research team records underwater volcano
3:46 p.m., June 21, 2006--Edward Kohut, a visiting assistant professor of petrology and structure in the University of Delaware's Department of Geology, was part of a team of scientists who recorded an underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean during a research expedition last October. Kohut said that while submarine eruptions are common--75 percent of all volcanic activity in the world occurs in the oceans--the dramatic footage of the volcano, which was released by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, is extremely rare. The volcano is a submarine mountain known as NW-Rota 1, located 1,800 feet under water about 60 miles north of the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam. The volcano was first mapped and dredged in 2001, but was discovered to be active in March 2003. The eruptions were observed using cameras on the Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Hyper Dolphin, operated from the Japanese ship R/V Natsushima. Hyper Dolphin and other ROVs also can be configured to collect water and rock samples. The Hyper Dolphin probe recorded the eruption from about 10 feet away, believed to be the first time such footage has been captured from such a close distance. “It was exciting to see that the volcano was still actively erupting a year and a half after it was first taped, I was not expecting it to still be active,” Kohut said. “I was thrilled to see mixed gas and material flowing down the sides of the vent, to my knowledge this was the first observation of pyroclastic flows from a submarine volcano.” The expedition was a Japanese-American effort led by Yoshi Tamura from Japan, Bob Embley from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Bob Stern from the University of Texas-Dallas. Kohut was invited to join the team because of plans to dive on and sample the Chaife seamount volcano, on which Kohut has been conducting research. “This was the second time in a year and a half that vigorous eruptive activity was observed at this vent, and it is statistically unlikely that separate eruptions coincided with the dives on the vent,” Kohut said. “What is more likely, especially when you also consider the plume was detected in 2003 and activity again observed this spring, is that the NW-Rota 1 volcano has been erupting more or less continually for a number of years.” Kohut served in the U.S. Coast Guard before he joined the University of Rhode Island, where he received a bachelor's degree in geology and geological oceanography. He earned a master's degree in geology at Boston College and received a doctoral degree from Oregon State University, where he began his research on volcanoes in the Marianas. He accepted a temporary position at UD last January. Article by Martin Mbugua |
|
|
