By Sid Perkins
Visit the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website to watch the videos.
SAN FRANCISCO — An unmanned submersible toting high-definition cameras has captured video of a volcano erupting more than a kilometer below the surface of the South Pacific. One unexpected bonus: Researchers have grabbed samples of a chemically distinct, water-rich type of lava never before seen at an actively erupting volcano.
“It was an underwater Fourth of July,” said Bob Embley, a marine geologist at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory VENTS program in Newport, Ore. ”It was extremely exciting, and we’re ecstatic,” he reported December 17 during the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union.