Headline: Volcano erupting on ocean floor off Oregon coast

Source: The Associated Press, 6 April 2001

URL: http://www.nandotimes.com

BROOKINGS, Ore. (April 6, 2001 6:57 a.m. EDT) - A volcano has been erupting on the ocean floor off the southern Oregon coast since Tuesday night, scientists say, but it poses no threat to ships or coastal communities.

The eruption 130 miles off the coast has generated more than 1,000 minor earthquakes that continued late Thursday. A few quakes have been powerful enough to be detected by land-based instruments, with the largest measuring 4.5 magnitude.

Scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been using undersea instruments to track activity at the volcano, on an undersea ridge that runs off southern Oregon and northern California.

"We're mobilizing to get a research ship to check it out," said Robert W. Embley, a marine geologist with the administration's Vents Program.

Researchers would like the ship to arrive in time to find "megaplumes," gigantic bursts of hot, mineral-rich water that are spewed out of underwater eruptions.

Christopher Fox, a geophysicist with the Vents Program, said the seismic activity detected by the seafloor instruments is caused by the magma being injected into the ridge and cracking the rock.

Fox said the earthquake activity, which reached a peak of nearly 90 per hour Tuesday evening, had slowed to only a few per hour by Thursday afternoon.

-- AndreWeltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), April 06, 2001

Answers

Headline: NOAA watching apparent underwater volcano off West Coast Source: Cnn, 5 April 2001

URL: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/science/04/05/underwater.volcano/index.ht ml?s=2

SILVER SPRING, Maryland -- Scientists are monitoring what they say appears to be an underwater eruption in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles off the coast of Oregon and California.

The event was detected by the Navy's Sound Surveillance System, an underwater network of hydrophone arrays originally installed nearly 50 years ago for use in antisubmarine warfare, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.

Scientists from the NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Newport, Oregon, hope to sail to the area of the eruption in the next few days to study the phenomenon, NOAA spokeswoman Jana Goldman said.

Underwater volcanic eruptions are among the most common seismic events on Earth, she said, but scientists rarely get a chance to study them while they are happening because they typically occur very deep in the ocean.

"We are hoping that this will be one of those rare times that we get to study what happens to all aspects of the ocean when one of these events take place," said Steven Hammond, an oceanographer at the Newport lab.

NOAA said its data indicates the current eruption has consisted of a number of low-magnitude undersea earthquakes accompanied by an almost continuous band of what scientists call "volcanic tremor." According to NOAA's Web site, the small earthquakes can occur at a rate of up to 100 per hour and continue for weeks.

Because of the event's distance from shore --- about 100 miles --- and its depth--- perhaps 2 miles down --- scientists say there is virtually no danger to humans, Goldman said. "If a tsunami (tidal wave) were in the cards, it would have occurred by now," she told CNN.

One reason scientists are so interested in undersea eruptions is because they often result in the release of large hot water plumes containing large numbers of "extremophiles," microscopic bacteria- like creatures that thrive in very hot and chemical-rich environments such as those found around underwater volcanic vents. Researchers say the organisms have potential biotechnical and pharmaceutical applications.

-- Andre Weltman (aweltman@state.pa.us), April 06, 2001.

If it was a little closer to shore we
could have a hot tub party on the beach.
:::;-§

-- spider (spider0@usa.net), April 06, 2001.

Maybe they could divert some steam from the volcano to generate electicity (ha-ha)!

-- K (infosurf@yahoo.com), April 06, 2001.