Transcript NeMO The New Millennium Observatory on the Axial Volcano

The Case of the
Missing Rumbleometer
The NOAA research vessel Ron Brown
A Deep-Ocean Mystery from the New Millennium Observatory at Axial Volcano
GEL 1150 OCEANOGRAPHY PROJECT
Credits: adapted from New Millenium Observatory (NeMO), 2006 Educational Curriculum:
By Ronald Crouse and William Chadwick with assistance from Vicki Osis, William Hanshumaker, Teresa Atwill, and Jean Marcus
A Mystery to Solve
Oblique view of the seafloor around Axial Volcano (white area near the center).
In this computer generated image blue areas are deep and white are shallow.
Several months ago, thousands of small earthquakes were
detected at Axial Seamount, an active submarine volcano.
This may mean that an eruption has occurred, but not
necessarily. Your mission is to go to Axial Volcano and find
out what happened there.
The Missing Rumbleometer
Fortunately, a seafloor monitoring instrument, called a
“rumbleometer” was already at Axial Volcano during the
earthquakes and will provide important clues. But another
ship was just out at the site and was not able to recover the
rumbleometer. They could communicate with it on the
bottom, so they know it is still on the seafloor, but they
could not make it release and return to the surface. Why
didn’t it return? Is it stuck on the bottom somehow?
We really want to get the rumbleometer back because it
likely recorded information on what the volcano was doing
and will help us understand what happened during the
earthquakes. We know where the rumbleometer is on the
bottom, but you need to go out to Axial and find out why the
rumbleometer did not come up. Then you need to recover it
and look at the data it recorded to figure out what happened
at Axial during the earthquakes. A research ship with a
remotely operated vehicle are standing by ...
Glossary
Acoustic: Pertaining to sound.
Bathymetric map: A chart of ocean floor depths, similar to topographic maps on land.
Caldera: A depression formed at the summit of a volcano caused by collapse when
magma is removed from below.
Chemosynthesis: The process by which microbes mediate chemical reactions to
produce energy. This is in contrast to photosynthesis, because chemosynthesis does not
require sunlight.
Contour profile: A cross-section of topography along a given line.
Degree: A unit of angular distance. There are 360 degrees in a circle (as on a
compass).
Deposit feeder: Animals that consume small pieces of plant and animal material that
settle to the ocean floor from the water column.
Epicenter: The point on the Earth's surface from which earthquake waves seem to
radiate, located directly above the true center of the earthquake at depth.
Earthquake swarm: A sequence of many small earthquakes (10’s to 1000’s), all of
similar size (less than magnitude 4) and within a relatively short period of time (hours to
weeks). Earthquake swarms are often recorded during volcanic activity.
Hydrophone: An instrument used to record sound under water.
Hydrothermal vent: A hot spring on the seafloor.
Latitude: Angular distance on the Earth’s surface measured north or south of the
equator.
Lava: Molten rock after it has erupted from a volcano onto the Earth’s surface.
Longitude: Angular distance on the surface of the Earth measured east or west from
the prime meridian at Greenwich, England.
Magma: Molten rock that is underground, before it has erupted onto the Earth’s surface.
Microbes: Single-celled living organisms, such as bacteria and archaea.
Mid-ocean ridge: A type of tectonic plate boundary where two tectonic plates are
moving apart (also called a “spreading center”). Volcanic activity creates a ridge along
the boundary.
Minute of latitude or longitude: A unit of angular distance that is 1/60 of a degree.
Observatory: A site for long-term scientific observations.
ROPOS: The name of the remotely operated vehicle usually used at NeMO. ROPOS
stands for “Remotely Operated Platform for Ocean Science”.
Rumbleometer: (pronounced rum-ble-om’-i-ter) A seafloor instrument that measures
temperature and pressure (among other things) to help monitor submarine volcanoes.
Seamount: An undersea mountain rising over 1000 meters above the surrounding
seafloor.
Seismometer: An instrument that detects ground movement from earthquakes.
Sessile: Refers to marine animals that are permanently attached at the base; fixed in
one place and unable to move around.
Spreading center: See Mid-ocean ridge
Subduction zone: A type of tectonic plate boundary where two tectonic plates are
converging (moving toward each other) and one plate is forced under the other.
Sulfide chimney: Formations made of sulfide minerals deposited directly from
hydrothermal vent fluid at high-temperature seafloor hot springs.
Symbiotic: The relationship of different organisms in a close association that is mutually
beneficial. Many vent animals have symbiotic relationships with chemosynthetic
microbes.
Tectonic plates: Large intact pieces of the Earth’s outer rocky layer that move in
relation to one another. Most of the Earth’s earthquakes and volcanoes are located near
tectonic plate boundaries.
Transform fault: A type of tectonic plate boundary where one plate slides past another.
Triangulation: Method of finding a position with distances or angles from known points.
OCEANOGRAPHY PROJECT
In order to solve the mystery of what happened to the
rumbleometer during the recent earthquakes at Axial
Volcano, you will conduct the following four activities:
1) Locate an earthquake epicenter - this will tell you
where the action was and where to take the ship with ROPOS
2) Record observations during a ROPOS dive - you will
look for clues on the seafloor in the area around the
rumbleometer
3) Create before-and-after cross-sections of the
seafloor - this mapping exercise will show if there have been
any changes in seafloor depth since the previous survey was
done before the earthquakes
4) Analyze data from the rumbleometer - pressure and
temperature data recorded by the instrument will give
important information about what happened
Grading
• In order to get credit you must complete all
4 activities.
• Print out all worksheets & complete them as
instructed!
RUMBLEOMETER GRADING RUBRIC
The Project consists of 5 individual segments. Each segment is graded on
a 10 point grading system as indicate below. These raw points received
will be added and then multiplied by three to derive at your final score.
Raw Point Distribution per segment:
☐☐☐☐☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ 11
pts (A+), 10pts(A), 9pts (A-), 8pts (B), 7pts (C), 6pts (D), <6pts (F)
Point deductions per segment:
-1pt for every uncertainty, error, or incomplete;
-1 to -3pts for quality BELOW other students in course
Note: A+ (11pts) are given only for very exceptional & outstanding work
rarely seen in a student project!
SEGMENT 1
Completed Project Overall
Graded on Professionalism & Neatness
Good (what I am looking for): including but not limited to folder, Cover sheet
in front, Title page incl. Name, Class, Section, Date, Neatness, Business like
print quality, Electronically prepared, ...
Bad (point deductions): Cut n’ paste, missing Name on any or all of the parts,
sloppy appearance, stains, handwritten, missing segments, out of order, etc....
SEGMENT 2
Locating Earthquake using Triangulation
Graded on Triangulation Map & Hydrophone distance calculations
Good (what I am looking for): table & calculations in Excel, map showing
hydrophone Locations, distance circles, epicenter location, epicenter
coordinates, etc.,...
Bad (point deductions): Poor drawing; sloppy work; NO long.-lat. For
epicenter, wrong location, missing circles, etc.....
SEGMENT 3
Ocean Floor Traverse
Graded on Correctness & Completeness
Good (what I am looking for): Excel Table addressing the following
questions: Old or new lava? Lava collapsed or uncollapsed? Hydrothermal
Vent present: Old or New? List of observed animal species ...
Note: Best to transcribe the table presented in the power point into Excel
Bad (point deductions): including but not limited to missing or sloppy /
unprofessional work, not Excel, not enough detail, NOT observed, etc...
SEGMENT 4
Contour Profiling & Map
Create five (5) contour profiles using the Contour Profile Worksheets presented in
this Power Point. Can be hand drawn if neat AND orderly. Mark & shade the
POST-event profile in Red.
Post-event Map: Mark east and west boundaries of new lava flow in red on map
roughly following the contour lines, to define boundary and extent of new lava flow
Graded on drawing neatness, correctness, completeness
Good (what I am looking for): including but not limited to clean cross section and
map, ALL 5 sections present, NO errors, color coded differentiating between pre
and post event, relying on data...
Bad (point deductions): including but not limited to missing or sloppy work,
incomplete data or map, no color coding, illogical compilation, etc. etc....
SEGMENT 5
Rumbleometer Data & Conclusion
After plotting data electronically, type a concluding paragraph explaining
what happened to the Missing Rumbleometer drawing on ALL the activities.
Note: The questions presented throughout the exercises will help you to
draw the proper conclusion in your write-up. It is NOT necessary to answer
each question individually!
Graded on use of Excel, Quality, Neatness, Language
Good (what I am looking for): Excel data graphs, professional write-up,
logical explanation using ALL the data, detailed, etc...
Bad (point deductions): including but not limited to missing or sloppy /
unprofessional work, hand-drawn, poor grammar / composition, etc....
Activity #1: Locating an
earthquake using triangulation
A hydrophone being recovered at sea.
Earthquakes that occur at
volcanoes are usually small and
numerous. In fact, most of the
earthquakes at Axial were too
small to be detected by
seismometers on land. Instead,
scientists use hydrophones
(underwater microphones) to
detect submarine earthquakes.
The hydrophones listen for the
faint rumbling sounds that the
earthquakes emit into the ocean.
Several hydrophones have
previously been positioned at
Axial Volcano and we have been
able to get the data they
recorded during the earthquake
swarm.
Oceanic earthquakes
Diagram showing how part of the energy from a seafloor earthquake is converted
into sound that travels through the ocean (as a T-wave). Oceanic earthquakes
are detected more easily by hydrophones that by seismometers on land.
Calculating Distance
Your first job is to determine the exact location of the
earthquakes so we know where to take the ship and
where to make our first dive with ROPOS. Thousands of
earthquakes were detected, but we will just locate the one
that was the largest.
To do that, we must calculate the distance of the event
from each hydrophone. The distance from each
hydrophone to the earthquake's epicenter is determined
by multiplying the time in seconds that the sound travels
by its speed underwater.
Distance = Time X Speed
In this case, we can use a sound speed of 1.5 kilometers
per second.
For Example:
– If the sound of an earthquake takes 2 seconds to
reach a hydrophone, we multiply that by the
sound’s speed underwater to get the distance.
– 2 seconds X 1.5 kilometers/second = 3 kilometers
(Time X Speed = Distance)
– The epicenter is, therefore, 3 kilometers from the
hydrophone.
– But note that it could be in any direction!
Marking the distance
from a Hydrophone
• Begin by
calculating the
earthquake’s
distance from one
hydrophone.
• Using a compass,
draw a circle on
your map around
the hydrophone’s
location with a
radius equal to
the distance from
the earthquake
(as determined
from the map’s
scale bar).
0 __1__2__3
kilometers
.
Hydrophone #1
Triangulation
In order to pinpoint the exact location of the
earthquake’s epicenter, we must determine the
distance from at least three hydrophones. At the
intersection of the three circles is the epicenter.
.
.
Hydrophone #3
Hydrophone #1
Epicenter
.
Hydrophone #2
Bathymetric Map
On the following page you
will find a large format
black and white
bathymetric map of the
summit caldera of Axial
Volcano. The black
squiggly lines are
contours of equal depth
(at a 10 meter interval).
Print it out to use as a
worksheet for the
triangulation activity.
Color bathymetric map of Axial caldera
(blue is deepest, red is shallowest).
It can also be enlarged
and printed on 11” x 17”
sized paper.
Latitude and Longitude
Geographic locations on a
map are expressed in
latitude (the north-south
axis) and longitude (the
east-west axis). Both
latitude and longitude are
measured in degrees (˚)
and minutes (’). There are
60 minutes in one degree,
and each minute can be
further divided into tenths.
For example, the location
of “Fissure Cone” on the
map of Axial caldera (at
right) is approximately:
45˚ 58.6’ / -130˚ 01.8’
Fissure
Cone
Hydrophone Locations
Three hydrophones have been deployed near the
southern edge of Axial caldera. These are the
hydrophones that recorded location data on the
earthquake.
Accurately mark their locations on your map with
the appropriate hydrophone number.
#AX01
#AX02
#AX03
45˚ 55.0’ / -130˚ 01.0’
45˚ 55.0’ / -129˚ 59.0’
45˚ 57.0’ / -129˚ 59.0’
Locating the Epicenter
Using the method of triangulation previously
described, convert the earthquake sound travel times
listed below into a distance from each hydrophone.
Using a compass, draw a circle at the appropriate
distance around each hydrophone and find the
location of the earthquake epicenter.
Remember: Distance = Time x Speed
Use a sound speed of 1.5 km/second.
#AX01
#AX02
#AX03
1.87 seconds
0.97 seconds
1.53 seconds
What are the coordinates of the earthquake
epicenter?
Activity #2: Ocean Floor Traverse
The rumbleometer instrument as it
appeared when it was being deployed
from a ship. Note that the instrument
frame has three legs that are each a
half a meter long.
Interesting ... the location of the earthquake’s epicenter is
very near the location of the rumbleometer at Axial
Volcano. Your task now is to take the ship to this location,
find the rumbleometer, figure out why it is stuck on the
bottom, then recover it and examine the data it recorded.
The rumbleometer has sensors to measure small changes
in temperature and pressure. This information will help
you interpret what happened.
Dive to the seafloor
with ROPOS
OK, the ship is on site.
You need to get ready to
make a survey of the
bottom with ROPOS to
determine what happened
to the rumbleometer.
During this dive, ROPOS
will travel in a straight
line, from east to west,
along 45˚ 55.8' latitude.
You will make
observations at eight
points along the traverse.
At each point, you need to
locate your position on a
map and record your
observations on a
worksheet.
The remotely operated vehicle ROPOS
getting ready to make a dive.
Bathymetric Map
PRE-EVENT BATHYMETRIC MAP
Here is a detailed bathymetric map of the rumbleometer
area. ROPOS collected the data to make this map during
an earlier expedition, before the earthquake swarm. The
rumbleometer is located at the red dot at the center of the
map. A larger version of this map is on the following
page. It can be printed out on standard 8.5" x 11" paper.
PRE-EVENT BATHYMETRIC MAP
Distinguishing old from new lava
During the traverse, you will want to look for new lava.
New lava is generally shiny and black and has not yet
been covered with much sediment. New lava flows also
do not have any deep-sea animals living on them except
at hydrothermal vents where fast-colonizing animals,
such as tubeworms, scaleworms, snails, and limpets can
begin to colonize within a few months of an eruption.
Seafloor animals can tell a story
The animals found living on the seafloor are very helpful for
distinguishing new from old lava flows. Sessile (non-moving)
and slow-colonizing animals like sponges, seafans, and
crinoids are only found on old lava away from hydrothermal
vents. Hydrothermal vents can be colonized quickly. Newly
colonized hydrothermal vents (on new lava) typically have
few species and individuals, and tubeworms are white and
small (<50 cm), if present. Older established vents (on old
lava) have more species and animals, and the tubeworms are
brown and larger (>50 cm). Octopuses, crabs, and fish are
mobile and can be found on either old or new lava.
Characteristics of deep-sea animal species
(Print this sheet out and refer to it during the bottom traverse)
Animal
characteristics
Vent-specific
species
Sessile and slow
colonizers (found
only on old lava)
Non-vent
species
Sponges, seafans,
stalked crinoids,
soft corals
Sessile or slow
moving, but fast
colonizers (found on
old and new lava)
Tubeworms,scaleworms, palmworms,
snails, limpets (vents
Mobile and fast
swimmers (these do
not tell you
anything about the
age of the lava)
Vent fish
on new lava have few species
and small tubeworms)
Octopuses, crabs,
sea cucumbers,
brittle stars, rattail
fish, fathead
sculpins
Lava pillars and collapse areas
Lava pillars in the middle of a collapsed part of a submarine lava flow.
Submarine lava flows often have areas of collapse in
the middle of the flows. At the edges of collapsed
areas "lava pillars" are often present. If you see lava
pillars on your bottom traverse with ROPOS, you
know you are in the middle of a collapsed lava flow.
Questions for the ROPOS dive
Print out the worksheet on the following page and as
ROPOS travels to each of the eight sites on your traverse,
use the worksheet to write down your observations about
the lava you see and the animal species that are living on
it. Try to determine at each site:
* Is there evidence for a recent eruption of lava here?
* Is the lava collapsed or uncollapsed?
* Is there a hydrothermal vent present, and if so, is it old
or new?
* What animal species are present and what do they
tell you about the age of the lava?
* Finally, what do the clues you see about lava age tell you
about what happened to the rumbleometer?
Ocean Floor Traverse Worksheet
Site #
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8
Old or new lava?
Lava collapsed or
uncollapsed?
Hydrothermal
vent present? If
so, old or new?
List animal
species.
Vent or non-vent
species?
Fast or slow
colonizers?
What happened to the rumbleometer?
Begin Ocean Floor Traverse
The remotely operated vehicle ROPOS enters the water.
OK, you’re ready to make the ROPOS dive. Let’s see
what the bottom looks like around the rumbleometer
and see if we can figure out why the rumbleometer is
stuck...
Site #1:
45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 58.7’
Site #2:
45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 58.8’
Site #3:
45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 58.9’
Site #4: 45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 58.95’
Site #5: 45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 59.05’
Site #6:
45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 59.1’
Site #7:
45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 59.2’
Site #8:
45˚ 55.8’ / -129˚ 59.3’
End of bottom traverse
with ROPOS
What are your observations and interpretations?
Was new lava erupted in this area during the
earthquake swarm? If so, where?
What ideas do you have about what happened to the
missing rumbleometer? (Hint: when it was
originally deployed it was sitting on old lava, and
you could see its three legs. Is that the case now?)
You will find more clues in Activities #3 and #4.
Activity #3: Contour Profiling
Next, by maneuvering ROPOS
back and forth in a grid
pattern, we can produce a
new bathymetric map of the
area to look for changes in
the seafloor terrain. Through
a technique called contour
profiling, we can create
cross-section profiles of the
seafloor along a given line.
By comparing PRE- and POSTevent contour profiles we can
determine the extent of the
new lava, its depth, and
identify the collapsed areas.
This will give more clues
about what happened to the
rumbleometer.
Map showing ROPOS tracklines.
POST-EVENT BATHYMETRIC MAP
ROPOS collected data
during your dive to
produce a POST-event
bathymetric map covering
the same region as the
PRE-event map. On the
following pages, you will
find printable versions of
the POST-event map and
the contour profile
worksheet. You will need
a copy of each map, PREand POST-, and one
contour profile worksheet
for each profile you plan to
make (there are five). You
will also need a black and
a red pencil and a ruler or
straight edge.
CONTOUR PROFILE WORKSHEET
POST-EVENT BATHYMETRIC MAP
CONTOUR PROFILE WORKSHEET
POST-EVENT BATHYMETRIC MAP
CONTOUR PROFILE WORKSHEET
Notice that the axes are
different for the two maps
(PRE and POST) and the
contour profile worksheet.
The maps have latitude on
the vertical y-axis,
whereas the worksheet
has depth on the y-axis.
Both the maps and the
worksheet have longitude
on the horizontal x-axis
and they are the same size
so that they can be
overlain on each other.
We are going to transfer
depth information from the
maps along a single eastwest line of latitude onto a
vertical cross section on
the profile worksheet to
look for changes in depth
due to the lava eruption.
Profile #1
POST-EVENT BATHYMETRIC MAP
Profile #2
Profile #3
Profile #4
Profile #5
Each contour profile will be made along a specific line of
latitude on the PRE- and POST-event maps.
Start with the PRE-event map and a black pencil. Notice that each
contour on the map has a label with the depth in meters. Depths are
also listed on the y-axis of the contour profile worksheet. To show
how to make a profile, we will use profile #3 along 45° 55.8’ of
latitude as an example. Begin by folding the PRE-event bathymetric
map along the 45˚ 55.8’ latitude line. Keep the map folded on this
line of latitude while you work on this profile.
Line up the margins of the
map and the worksheet.
Start on the left side of the
map, and determine the
depth of the first contour
that crosses the fold line (in
this case 1530). Slide the
map up or down on the
worksheet until you are at
the 1530 depth line on the
worksheet. Make a dot with
the black pencil here on the
Make your first mark here
worksheet where the 1530
contour line crosses, or
touches, the fold line.
Proceeding to the right along the fold of the map, the next
contour line that crosses the fold has a depth of 1529. Slide the
map upward slightly on the worksheet to move from 1530 to
1529 depth on the y-axis. Mark another dot at 1529 depth on
the worksheet where the 1529 contour line crosses the fold on
the map. Continue in this way, working from left to right, and
marking a dot at the correct depth on the worksheet each time a
contour crosses the fold
of the map. For each
new contour, you will
have to slide the folded
map up or down over
the worksheet to find
the right depth on the
worksheet. Remember
to keep the margins of
the map and the
worksheet in alignment,
as you slide the map up
and down over the
worksheet.
Connect the dots on the worksheet as you work your way
completely across the fold line on the map. You are making
a PRE-event cross-section of the ocean floor depth along the
45˚ 55.8’ latitude
line. Repeat the
procedure with the
same worksheet,
but use the POSTevent bathymetric
map, also folded
along the 45˚ 55.8’
latitude line. Where
the depth is the
same, do not make
a mark, since one is
already there.
However, when the contour line is at a different location, make
a dot with the red pencil on the worksheet. Connect the red
dots with the red pencil and you will see a POST-event crosssection along the same line of latitude.
Questions to answer
from the contour profiles
When finished, compare the results. The difference
in the PRE- and POST- profiles is the change in
seafloor depth due to the eruption of the new lava
flow. Were there changes on all five of the profiles?
On each contour profile worksheet, the area
between the PRE- and POST- profiles, can be shaded
red to show the thickness and extent of the new
lava along each profile. Determine the maximum
thickness of the lava flow and indicate where any
collapse areas are located.
Mark the location of the rumbleometer. Is it in a
collapsed or uncollapsed area of the flow? What
does this tell you about what happened to the
rumbleometer? How did it not get buried by lava?
Mapping the Lava Flow
If you want to map the boundaries of the lava flow,
take the contour profiles you made from each latitude
line between 45˚ 55.6’ and 45˚ 56.0’, and mark the
east and west boundaries of the new lava flow (the
red area) along the corresponding line of latitude on
the POST-event map. Then connect the marks on the
map, roughly following the contour lines, to define the
boundary and extent of the new lava flow.
What is the maximum width of the new lava flow?
What happened as the lava flow encountered
obstacles, such as pre-existing hills?
In the next activity we will look at the data that the
rumbleometer recorded.
Activity #4: Graphing
Rumbleometer Data
The rumbleometer was
stuck in the new lava flow,
but amazingly, it survived.
During your dive, ROPOS
attached a cable to the
rumbleometer and the ship
was able to pull it free from
the lava and recover it at
the surface.
Rumbleometer recovered back on board the ship
You can now examine the data that the instrument recorded! The
water temperature and pressure were measured continuously during
the eruption of the lava flow. Pressure can be easily converted to
depth and we can determine if there was any upward or downward
movement of the instrument during the eruption. By examining the
temperature and pressure changes you may be able to tell exactly
when the eruption began and how long it lasted.
Data Worksheets
On the following pages are printable versions of
the depth and temperature worksheets. Also,
there is a listing of depth and temperature data
recorded by the rumbleometer during the
eruption. Notice that time is indicated in
decimal hours, beginning at 12.0 hours (noon)
and ending at 24.0 hours (midnight). Time is
on the x-axis on the worksheets. Graph both
temperature and depth and then speculate as to
what happened to the rumbleometer during the
eruption.
Rumbleometer Data
Time (decimal hour) Pressure (psi) Depth (meters) Temperature (˚C)
12.0
13.5
15.0
15.3
15.4
15.8
15.9
16.1
16.3
16.7
17.3
17.5
17.7
18.1
18.4
19.0
20.0
21.0
22.0
23.0
24.0
2242.4
2242.6
2242.9
2242.5
2240.1
2238.6
2238.7
2238.5
2239.3
2240.7
2242.2
2242.6
2242.2
2242.7
2242.0
2242.2
2242.2
2242.2
2242.1
2242.1
2242.1
1529.7
1529.9
1530.0
1529.8
1528.1
1527.1
1527.2
1527.1
1527.6
1528.6
1529.6
1529.9
1529.6
1530.0
1529.5
1529.6
1529.6
1529.6
1529.5
1529.5
1529.5
3.3
3.3
3.3
3.3
3.6
7.5
7.5
7.0
6.1
5.6
5.3
5.8
6.1
7.1
7.0
5.8
4.8
4.5
4.4
4.4
4.4
Write-Up
• The questions on the following slide will
help you to write your concluding paragraph
as requested in segment 5.
• You are encouraged to include ALL data /
observations, even those made in previous
segments / exercises / activities.
Observations and Conclusions
•
What observations can you make from the graphs of
the rumbleometer data?
• What can you conclude about what happened to the
instrument during the eruption?
• Why did it survive and not get completely buried in
lava?
•
When did the eruption start and how long did it last?
•
How much did the water temperature increase?
• The lava erupted at a temperature of 1200° Celsius
(~2200° Fahrenheit). Why do you think the recorded
temperature rose so little?
Congratulations!
You’ve solved the case of the missing rumbleometer!
And by doing so, you have the first glimpse at what
happens during a submarine volcanic eruption.
Please turn in completed, final work related to this
activity.
Good work!
This curriculum is based on real events and real data
from the NeMO observatory at Axial Volcano.
CREDITS
The NeMO Curriculum was
funded by
The National Science
Foundation Geoscience
Education Program
With additional support from the
NOAA Vents Program and Oregon SeaGrant
Written by
Ronald Crouse and William Chadwick
with assistance from
Vicki Osis, William Hanshumaker, Teresa Atwill, and Jean Marcus