Image Archive

A large red jellyfish swims gently by the ROV ROPOS at Axial Seamount.

An octopus (likely Muusoctopus sp.) smiles for the ROPOS camera at Primary Node 3A at the base of Axial Seamount. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF, V14.

An octopus hanging out next to primary node PN3A at Axial Base, 2600 meters deep. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF, ROPOS Dive R1742, V14.

An octopus hanging out near primary node PN3A at Axial Base, 2600 meters deep. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF,ROPOS Dive 1742, V14.

A bizarre sponge, Chondrocladia lampadiglobus, seen at Axial Base (2600m deep). First seen in 1960 in grainy black and white pictures, it was originally thought to be a Russian listening device by the US Navy, before it was eventually identified as an organism. Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive 1739, V14

A spider crab encountered at the Axial Base site (2600m deep) during a cable survey. Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive 1739, V14

A sea pen, a colonial marine cnidarian belonging to the order Pennatulacea, seen at the Axial Base site (2600m depth) during a cable survey. Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive 1739, V14

A dumbo octopus (Grimpoteuthis) at the Axial Base site at 2600 m water depth. Identified by cephalopod experts Stephanie Bush (MBARI) and Mike Vecchione (Smithsonian) Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF, Dive R1739, V14.

A close-up picture of the skinny fish seen at 565m depth at the Axial Base site. It has been tentatively identified as Bathylychnops exilis or a Paralepidid by Brian Sidlauskas and Ben Frable (OSU) Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive 1738, V14

A small cranchiid squid at the Axial Base site at 1318 m water depth. Tentatively identified as Taonius by cephalopod expert Stephanie Bush (MBARI). Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF, ROPOS Dive R1738, V14.

A closeup view of a dinner plate jelly seen at Axial Base during dive 1737. Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF, Dive 1737, V14

A close-up portrait of a black rattail fish at the Axial Base site, at 2603 meters depth. Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive 1736; V14.  

A close up of animals, including palm worms and tubeworms, on the hydrothermal chimney called Mushroom in the ASHES hydrothermal field. The image is a frame grab from video streamed during testing of the OOI-RCA high-definition video camera built by the Applied Physics Lab at the University of Washington. The camera has been at this site for 1 year. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/ V14.

During ROPOS Dive R1730, the UW-RCA high-definition video camera was tested successfully. The camera was installed in 2013 and 1-year later it worked extremely well. A test 3-D thermistor array (bottom right) that was installed last year rests on a diffuse flow site, covered in microbial filaments. To the left, a cabled 3-D thermistor array will replace the uncabled system. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; Dive ROPOS R1730; V14.

This unknown species is relatively common at Axial, living among the basalt lava rocks. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1731; V14

This giant rattail is more than 1 m in length explores the ROPOS tool basket in 2014. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; ROPOS Dive R1729; V14.

Unknown Sea Cucumber 2. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1716; V14

A Big Red Jelly floats by the ROPOS camera. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; V13

Pacific Flatnose (Antimora microlepis) at Axial Seamount. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; ROPOS Dive R1720; V14.

This species is not yet identified, although it may also be Spinophiura jolliveti.  It is the dominant brittle star at the base of Axial.  Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; R600; V13

A deep-sea octopus ignores ROPOS at the Escargot hydrothermal vent in the International District vent field at the summit of Axial Seamount. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; ROPOS Dive R1723; V14.

A rear view of the Spider Crab Macroregonic macrochira at Axial Seamount. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1727; V14

The spider crab Macroregonic macrochira is very common at Axial Seamount. Credit:UW/NSF-OOI/CSSF; ROPOS Dive R1727; V14.

There are likely to be many sea urchins hiding beneath the vast lava rock fields at Axial.Here, several of the Unknown Sea Urchin 1 variety are shown. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1724; V14

Seastars (Class Asteroidea) and Brittle Stars (Class Ophiuroidea) belong to Phylum Echinodermata. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1727; V14

Brittle stars (Ophiuroids) are found everywhere on Axial.  This species (center) may be different from the much more common Spinophiura jolliveti. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1727; V14

This Deep-Sea cucumber (Holothurian) is likely of the genus Pannychia, possibly Pannychia moseleyi. Photo credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1724; V14