The First-ever Detection and Tracking of a Mid-Ocean Ridge Volcanic Eruption Using the Recently Completed, NSF-Funded, Submarine Fiber-Optic Network in the Juan de Fuca Region.

Abstract:

The most scientifically diverse and technologically advanced component of the Ocean Observatories Initiative involves 900 km of electro-optical fiber, extending from Pacific City, OR, across active portions of the JDF tectonic plate, and upward into the overlying ocean. Completed in 2014, on time and under budget, this network enables real-time, high-bandwidth, 2-way communication with seafloor/water-column sensor arrays across: 1. the Cascadia accretionary prism, 2. the JdF spreading center, and, 3. portions of the overlying NE Pacific. Oceanographic processes in coastal environments, the California Current, and 400 km offshore, are captured by six remote-controlled, profiling moorings covering full-ocean depths. In August, 2015, all sections of cable, all six operational primary nodes, all 17 junction boxes, and 97% of all 146 instruments are transmitting data ashore to the Internet via the Pacific Northwest Gigapop (http://www.pnwgp.net/). All data are archived at the U of Washington, pending completion of the OOI CyberInfrastructure System in October 2015. 

In 2014, community requests to access seismic and seafloor deformational information for assessment of progressive inflation at Axial Seamount (Chadwick et al, 2012), resulted in NSF releasing, through IRIS (http://www.iris.edu/hq/), real-time data from 7 seismometers and 3 pressure sensors. At a community-initiated meeting on April 20-22, 90 participants covering the spectrum of Ocean Sciences, met in Seattle to explore scientific responses in the event Axial actually erupted (http://novae.ocean.washington.edu). On April 24, Axial did erupt; seismic event counts rose dramatically to many hundreds/hour (Wilcock, AGU-2015), the Axial caldera floor dropped 2.2 m in ~20 hours (Nooner et al, AGU-2015), and water temperatures in the caldera rose slowly by ~0.7°C, then declined in 3 weeks to normal values. Unusual water-bourn acoustic signals indicated ongoing seafloor activity along the rift zone extending north from Axial. Seafloor mapping indicates new lava in that area (Kelley, AGU-2015). Additional in situ observations in August are planned. 

These events signal a new era in Ocean Sciences as instantaneous Internet access to events far offshore begin allowing interactive responses to complex processes unfolding within our ocean.