Deep-Sea Synergy: Humans, Robots, and the Most Active Volcanic Systems on Earth

Abstract:

Although roughly 70% of Earth's volcanic activity occurs within the oceans, only a handful of submarine eruptions have been well documented and even fewer directly observed. However, over the past 50 years, technological innovations have provided increasingly sophisticated ways to study and characterize the seafloor and have propelled an astounding rate of new discoveries about magmatic and volcanic processes in the deep ocean. Human-occupied submarines, remotely-operated vehicles, and autonomous underwater vehicles have allowed scientists to make startling discoveries in volcano science that include magmatically driven chemosynthetic ecosystems, the Earth's mantle exposed at the seafloor, explosive volcanic eruptions at great depths, and the detailed tectonic and morphological structure of the global mid-ocean ridge. The technology behind these deep-submergence vehicles has evolved from a suite of rudimentary tools lowered by wire to highly capable vehicles with greater endurance, autonomy, and flexibility than ever before. Underwater vehicles are now used in the deep ocean to make observations, collect samples, and query the environment with the same or at higher fidelity than we can in terrestrial systems. ROVs and AUVs can now stay submerged for many days, collect data without human intervention, and bring scientists (and the public via telepresence) to places never before seen by humankind. This presentation will summarize the intersection of engineering and science that has led to the current use of underwater vehicles to study deep-sea volcanic processes. Through a discussion of some of the important discoveries in volcano science they enabled, we will explore how near- and long-term technological advances may shape the future volcanic research in the deep sea.