Axial Volcano

Fire on the Ocean Floor

The Axial Volcano program is designed as a computer-assisted interactive learning experience. It is especially suited for high school and college students with an interest in marine biology and geological and chemical oceanography. Students learn about the exciting undersea volcanoes, hydrothermal vents, colonies of deep-sea fauna and flora and the tremendous forces of pressure and plate tectonics that occur off our Pacific Northwest coast.

The program uses real-time information, maps and visual graphics to provide students with the latest in deep-sea research. Students work in research teams to explore the active cauldera of the Axial Volcano located one mile below the ocean surface. They will use triangulation to locate and navigate their remotely operated "ROPOS" vehicle and perform hypothetical sampling at actual sites within the cauldera. New species and lava flows will be encountered as well as hazards to avoid and equipment failures to be overcome.

Goals, Objectives and Benchmarks

Goals of the HMSC Marine Education Programs

• Develop in students a sense of stewardship for the marine environment.
• Provide an opportunity for students to experience the marine environment.
• Develop an understanding of the importance of marine research and its role in protection of marine resources and the environment.
• Improve science literacy using marine examples.

Instructional Goals and Objectives for "Axial Volcano"

• Learn how oceanographers study undersea volcanoes.
• Practice navigating a remotely operated submersible research vehicle.
• Explore recent lava flows, hydrothermal vents and the unique wildlife communities of the Axial Volcano.

Oregon Education Common Curriculum Goals and Benchmarks

The information presented in this class fulfills the following State of Oregon education goals and benchmarks in SCIENCE:

CIM/Grade 10 Benchmarks

1. Use conceptual and/or mathematical models to explain natural systems.
2. Analyze how physical, biological, or geological systems can maintain equilibrium.
3. Describe and analyze the effect of species on an ecosystem.
4. Describe changes in the formation of Earth materials.
5. Ask questions and form hypotheses that are based on observations and scientific concepts and that can be tested through scientific investigations.
6. Analyze data and evaluate sources of error and/or bias. Propose explanations that are supported by data and knowledge of science concepts and principles.

MATHMATICS:

CIM/Grade 12 Benchmarks

Understand and formulate problems; select or provide relevant information; use mathematical concepts, models, and representations.

Content Overview

Mid Ocean Ridges

Juan de Fuca Plate and Sea Floor Spreading

Just off the coast of the Pacific Northwest lies one of these massive pieces of the earth's crust called the Juan de Fuca Plate. As it moves eastward it dives under the approaching North American plate. But on its western edge it is actually pulling away from the great Pacific plate. This forms a fracture zone where hot magma can reach the ocean floor.Just off the coast of the Pacific Northwest lies one of these massive pieces of the earth's crust called the Juan de Fuca Plate. As it moves eastward it dives under the approaching North American plate. But on its western edge it is actually pulling away from the great Pacific plate. This forms a fracture zone where hot magma can reach the ocean floor.

The main type of earth movement that appears to be occurring along the Juan de Fuca Ridge is one of sea floor spreading. This movement actually opens up a crack, or "rift," on the ocean floor producing lava flows and allowing super-heated water to shoot from hydrothermal vents.

The Axial Seamount

Underwater mountains are termed "seamounts" and the Axial Seamount is an active volcano. It rises 1000 meters above the surrounding ocean floor yet its summit is almost 1500 meters below sea level. At the very summit lies the "caldera," a 3-km by 5-km oval depression created by past volcanic eruptions. The steep walls of the caldera are 100 meters high.

Black Smokers and Chemosynthesis

A sulfide chimney that vents super-heated water laden with hydrogen sulfide and other toxic chemicals is termed a "blacksmoker." A pH of 4 in this environment is about equal to vinegar and would be deadly to most organisms. Amazingly, certain bacteria can use the hydrogen sulfide to produce food in a process termed "chemosythesis." They in turn form the base for an entire food chain of organisms dependent upon the vent. The bacteria can grow as a mat on rocks surrounding the vent, in organisms as symbiotic bacteria and even in the super-heated underground water.

The ROPOS Vehicle

ROPOS stands for Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science. It is capable of performing a variety of scientific tasks including water analysis and specimen collection.

ROPOS is a thirty to forty horsepower electro-hydraulic ROV designed and built by International Submarine Engineering. The vehicle is equipped with two video cameras, two manipulators, sonar, a variety of custom sampling tools and several digital data channels. To date the vehicle has logged MORE THAN 1100 hours of operation during 320 dives in shallow and deep water. ROPOS has worked five seasons offshore in up to 5000
metres of water.

Calculating Distance

Transponders have been deployed at strategic locations around the caldera. They send out a sound pulse that can be heard by your ROPOS vehicle. We calculate the distance to the transponders by measuring the time it takes the sound to reach ROPOS. We use "triangulation" to determine the vehicle's exact location. The distance from ROPOS to the transponder is determined by multiplying the time in seconds that the sound pulse travels by its speed under water, which in seawater averages 1500 meters per second.

For Example:

–If the sound pulse, or "ping," takes 2 seconds to reach ROPOS then we multiply that by the sound's speed underwater
–2 seconds X 1500 meters/second = 3000 meters
–ROPOS is therefore 3000 meters (or 3 kilometers) from the transponder
–But it could be in any direction!

1. Begin by calculating ROPOS distance from one transponder.
2. Using a compass we draw a circle on our map around the transponder's location with an appropriate radius as determined from the map's legend.
3. In order to pinpoint the exact location of ROPOS we must determine the distance from at least three transponders.
4. At the intersection of the three circles is the ROPOS vehicle.

Latitude and Longitude Be advised that the increments of latitude and longitude are measured in degrees (°), minutes (') and seconds ("). One degree is divided into 60 minutes ('). One minute is divided into sixty seconds (").         Example, the location of the Fissure Cone is approximately: 45°58'40"N x 130°01'50"W

Click on this map for a larger version to Print * * Requires free Adobe Acrobat reader

Life on the Ocean Floor

Oceanographers have to be ready to experience an entirely different environment inhabited by strange, newly discovered species that make their home one mile below the surface.

Colony of Tubeworms

White Deep-sea Crab

Glossary

Basalt: A dark volcanic rock, found in various forms.

Bathymetric: The use of depth to chart topography on the ocean floor.

Caldera: A depression formed at the summit of a volcano, caused by explosion outward or collapse inward.

Chemosynthesis: The process by which bacteria can transform inert, toxic chemicals into energy and nutrients.

Degree: The 360th part of the circumference of a circle.

Hydrothermal vent: An opening on the ocean floor where superheated seawater is ejected from below the Earth's crust.

Latitude: Distance on the surface of the Earth measured north or south of the Equator.

Lava: Rock matter that flows in a molten state from volcanoes.

Longitude: Distance on the surface of the Earth measured east to west.

Magma: Rock matter in a molten state remaining below the surface of the Earth.

Minute: The sixtieth part of a degree of latitude or longitude.

ROPOS: Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Studies.

Seamount: An undersea mountain rising a minimum of 1000 meters from the ocean floor.

Second: The sixtieth part of a minute of latitude or longitude.

Symbiotic: The ability of two life forms to live within one organism, each providing nutrients and/or shelter for the other.

Transponder: A device that sends out a sound pulse, or "ping."

Triangulation: The use of three intersecting directions to determine a location.

Bibliography

• Cone, J. 1991. Fire Under the Sea. William Morrow Company, Inc. New York
• Gowell, E. 1998. Fountains of Life, The Story of Deep Sea Vents. Franklin Watts.
  New York.
• Journal of Geophysical Research. Volume 95. 1990. Axial Seamount. American Geophysical Union. Washington D.C.
• Waters, J. 1994. Deep Sea Vents, Living Worlds without Sun. Cobblehill Books.
  Dutton, New York.

Web sites

• New Millenium Observatory, NeMO 1998; http://newport.pmel.noaa.gov/nemo_cruise98/
• New Millenium Observatory, NeMO http://newport.pmel.noaa.gov/nemo/
• ROPOS, the Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science; http://www.ropos.com/
• NOAA Vents Program Home Page; http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/home.html

Reservations are required for all school programs.

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Last Update: February 4, 2004

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