April 18 2007

SIO Ocean Bottom Seismographs covered by lava flow a year ago in East Pacific Rise recovered

A Ridge2000/NSF team led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute researchers recovered instruments covered by lava flow on the East Pacific Ridge over a year ago. These instruments were built and deployed by the OBS lab at the Cecil & Ida Green Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics. Glass and lava trapped in the instruments are being analyzed.

As the Jason VirtualVan photos below show, lava around the sides, as well as a large chunk of lava on the back of the housings, prevented the Ocean Bottom Seismometer (OBS) from coming up. The OBS was easily pulled from the lava flow yet the rock on the housings had to be dislodged.

Congratulations to Adam Soule, Bob Waters, Tito Collasius, James Brennan, and the rest of the NDSF ROV group headed by Will Sellers for their expert operation of the Jason2 ROV during the operation. The Atlantis crew quickly had the OBS onboard after it surfaced.

This eruption was studied in the 2006 rapid response cruise led by Maya Tolstoy.

OBS lodged in lava flow

OBS being recovered

A large chunk of lava covers the housings

Removing lava from around the OBS

The OBS is sent back to the surface