| > Oceanography > Issues > Archive > Volume 23, Number 1 |
2010, Oceanography 23(1):182–183, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2010.82
SPOTLIGHT 10 | Northwest Rota-1 Seamount
Authors | First Paragraph | Full Article | Citation
Authors
William W. Chadwick | Oregon State University/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA
Robert W. Embley | Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), NOAA, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA
Edward T. Baker | PMEL, NOAA, Seattle, WA, USA
Joseph A. Resing | University of Washington/NOAA, Seattle, WA, USA
John E. Lupton | PMEL, NOAA, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA
Katharine V. Cashman | University of Oregon, Department of Geological Sciences, Eugene, OR, USA
Robert P. Dziak | Oregon State University/NOAA, Hatfield Marine Science Center, Newport, OR, USA
Verena Tunnicliffe | Department of Biology, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
David A. Butterfield | University of Washington/NOAA, Seattle, WA, USA
Yoshihiko Tamura | Institute for Research on Earth Evolution, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan
First Paragraph
Northwest Rota-1 Seamount is the first place on Earth where a submarine volcanic eruption was witnessed in 2004, and, remarkably, it appears that the volcano has been erupting continuously ever since. NW Rota-1 is located ~ 100 km north of Guam in the western Pacific, within the newly designated Mariana Trench Marine National Monument (http://www.fws.gov/marianastrenchmarinemonument). With a summit depth of 520 m, it is a symmetrical cone of basaltic andesite composition (Figure 1) formed in the subduction zone setting of the Mariana volcanic arc. It was identified as a site of particular interest in 2003 when sampling of its overlying hydrothermal plume showed very high magmatic volatile input (Resing et al., 2007). Consequently, it was one of several seamounts targeted for dives with a remotely operated vehicle the following year. During these dives, an actively erupting vent was discovered at a depth of 550 m; lava, fluid, and gas samples were collected; and colonies of shrimp, limpets, and crabs (some of them new species) were found living in the volcano summit's harsh conditions (Embley et al., 2006; Limén et al., 2006).
Full Article
Citation
Chadwick, W.W., R.W. Embley, E.T. Baker, J.A. Resing, J.E. Lupton, K.V. Cashman, R.P. Dziak, V. Tunnicliffe, D.A. Butterfield, and Y. Tamura. 2010. Spotlight 10: Northwest Rota-1 Seamount.
Oceanography 23(1):182–183, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2010.82.