Image Archive

Sulfide blocks the size of small cars at the base of the > 40 m tall sulfide edifice provide hints of active hydrothermal sites above.

A close up view fo the edge of a snowblower vent billowing microbes and microbial produced material from the subseafloor. The biologically produced material and filamentous colonies of single-celled organisms coat the side and walls of a small collapse pit. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; ROPOS Dive R1472; V11.

This very glassy basalt was sampled from the April 2011 lava flow by ROPOS from the southeastern side of the caldera on Axial Seamount. The glass forms when the 1200°C melt meets 2°C seawater. Scientists on land will use the glass to date the sample and to study its geochemistry and gas content. Credit: M. Elend, University of Washington. V11.

Gelatinous biological communities form bulbous deposits within the Bag City venting area.

Filamentous bacteria coat the outer surfaces of the sulfide chimney called Castle in the International District Hydrothermal Field on the eastern side of the Axial Seamount caldera. Warm fluids emanate from a small vent beneath Castle, supporting the microbial communities.

A small collapse zone north of the International District Hydrothermal Field showing characteristic bathtub rings and talus rubble that is the remanents of the roof.

The base of the small, 4 meter tall structure called Mushroom, is encased in a dense covering of tubeworms, palmworms, and limpets. Other life seen in this image includes  a sea anemone, and "spiders of the deep" called pycnogonids.

Tube worms encased in dense mats of filmentous bacteria cover a portion of the Inferno black smoker in ASHES vent field.

Thick flow wrapped by the April eruption on the eastern wall of the caldera. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; V11.