Collaborative Research: Dynamics of eruptive plumes above a submarine arc volcano

Oregon State University, Corvallis OR

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to analyze data collected on a cruise of exploration to Rota 1, an erupting undersea volcano in the western Pacific ocean. The work was not funded in the previous award and represents new data collected by a newly installed, more capable, multibeam sonar tool that can image bubble trains in with water column. Analysis of the data will include extracting eruption plume information and how it changes with time in terms of height, intensity, and direction. It will also compare the mid-water plume results to ROV visual observations. A major part of the study will be devoted to gauging the usefulness of mid-water multibeam bubble train datasets and finding out what can be learned from them in terms of gauging an undesea volcano's activity. Broader impacts of the work include graduate student training and development of a new UNOLS instrument capability.