A Deep-Sea Magma Monster Gets a Body Scan

Forget all the politics. opeds, and shouting. This is the kind of articles that makes me love my NYT subscription.

Actually, the history of the ship Langseth is a good illustration of mutual benefits between US funded scientific research and industry. The acoustic streamers and seismic algorithms to understand the structures below the sea floor were developed to understand structures that drive earthquakes and volcanoes. The oil and gas industries then grabbed this new technology and put huge amounts of money into ships and people to map out the structures in the earth that contain oil. The Langseth was originally built for the oil industry but was sold back cheap for science research during one of the cycles of boom and bust typical of the oil industry. Oceanographers would never have been able to afford it otherwise. Gotta say, the whole don't cross the strands "ghostbusters" riff is something the author has played up because he doesn't understand how impressive these results actually are. It is not true that land volcanoes are better understood, a uniform layer of water does a better job than loose rock and topsoil at preserving sound wave patterns for seismic mapping. This sea-mount is the only volcano where we really know what the lava plumbing and fractures look like.

Here in the shadow of Oregon's High Cascades, volcanoes can't be ignored. But I'm not worried. Well...not too worried. Nice article.

"... within 3,300 feet of the ship ..." As usual, the Times makes readers dumber by refusing to acknowledge that scientists use METRIC -- that distance is one kilometer.

"But, he [Dr. Arnulf] said, anyone raising these questions might as well ask why astronomers bother studying the stars." “It’s freaking awesome,” he said. The first answer is evasive, and the second answer is self-absorbed. This is tax-payer funded research, so the recipients of the tax-payer's largesse need to learn to do a better job of answering the "What is it good for?" question. In this case, that is easy: Understanding what happens at the boundary between two tectonic plates can tell us when and how megathrust earthquakes occur. For more, see: "Cascadia's fault : the coming earthquake and tsunami that could devastate North America" by Jerry Thompson (2011).

Curious if there are black smokers associated with this phenomenon? Be nice to know the color, temperature gradient associated with the map. Juan De Fuca, Pacific and North American plates and a triple junction. Crescent City, Ca. knows the effects. Aughra said it best in The Dark Crystal, "When single shines the triple sun, what was sundered and undone shall be whole, the two made one, by Gelfling hand, or else by none."

"... scientists had to take shifts watching the screens to make sure that it continued uninterrupted." "Spacing out was to be expected from time to time." There could be an application of artificial intelligence there, so scientists don't have to stare at computer screens looking for data interruptions. Something like that is already being developed for analyzing collisions in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN: "... a group of LHC physicists has teamed up with computer scientists to launch a competition to spur the development of artificial-intelligence techniques that can quickly sort through the debris of these [particle] collisions." Particle physicists turn to AI to cope with CERN’s collision deluge by Davide Castelvecchi 04 May 2018 Source: Nature web site.

“It’s freaking awesome" says it all. As someone living in Oregon it is tremendous fun to think of this giant "breathing" and erupting at the meeting of the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates. Hooray for Axial! Thank you to the scientists and journalists reminding us of the natural wonders all around us.

"Officers on deck kept an eye out for aquatic interlopers while using hydrophones to listen underwater." With all acknowledgement and appreciation that the scientists were mindful of not harming or disturbing marine life, still, I'd say to refer fin whales, dolphins, sharks and sunfish as the "interlopers" misidentifies them as such. Correctly identified, it's the humans here who are the interlopers and I write this with all encouragement for this expedition.

"...how [can] an expedition to a volcano far from anyone benefits society in terms of financial gain or hazard mitigation." The ability to observe and record high energy phenomena anywhere in the universe always reveals more about the safety and reality of our own existance. But regardless, humans are blessed with enormous curiosity and the brains to reveal deeply hidden secrets about the world we inhabit. To do otherwise would sustain our ignorance and be terribly shortsighted.

It truly is freaking awesome!

'... and have “several more zeros” added to their price tags ...' The Times should have reported an actual number. "... four electronic serpents, each five miles in length." If tangling is a problem, the cables should be deployed from separate ships, so the cables can be more widely spaced. Obviously, that would significantly increase the cost of an expedition. "The ship belongs to the National Science Foundation, and is operated by Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory." This sounds like US-only research. That go-it-alone approach is obsolete for major scientific research. The scientists should organize an *international* consortium for future expeditions. That would expand the number of ships that could participate. International research consortiums are not easy to organize, but it can be done with persistence. For an example, see: "Einstein's shadow : the inside story of astronomers' decades-long quest to take the first picture of a black hole" by Seth Fletcher.

Great reportage and I’d love to explore the cable survey’s imagery of Axial if the expedition publishes it online. 300 miles off the coast of OR does not seem too far to avoid peril for those who live in the Pacific NW, in the event of a tsunami caused by a major Axial eruption or quake a la Anak Krakatau in Indonesia. So I’m curious why scientists consider Axial too remote and deep to ever cause anyone harm.

You don't have to have sea legs to see the effects of a mantle plume and the products of the resulting hot spot on the crust. Millions of people pay to see one in the United States every year. They call it Yellowstone. You can, as they say, walk back through time and find the geologic remnants of the previous manifestations of that hot spot's location. The relative motion between that mantle plume and the NorthAmerican plate tracks southwestward all the way to Oregon.

Photo caption: "... records of instruments being added onto the cables ..." The paper on the clipboard looks like it has water damage. It might be a good idea to use water-resistant paper for that log.

"The ship’s crew had one overriding imperative: Do not let the cables get tangled." It sounds like their cabling system needs to be rethought. The photo appears to show a cable that is snaking. That shouldn't happen. One idea would be to add fins to the cables so they move more predictably. Another idea would be to put small smart-motors on the cables, so the cables could orient themselves.

I am no volcanologist, just interested in science. However, I wonder if the eruptions of Axial coincide with the movement of the Pacific / Juan De Fuca plate?

"... a stationary mantle plume below the shifting Pacific tectonic plate ..." The article should briefly describe a "mantle plume", which is a rising column of magma below the crust. As the crust moves over a plume, island chains may be formed. The Hawaiian islands are an example. "The mission’s data might also help scientists better understand why Axial seems to be breathing." I would call that "burping", since there is no obvious intake as there is with breathing. Anyway, that could explain why there are island chains instead of ridges. Each island in the chain corresponds to a "burp". Mantle plumes as an explanation for surface volcanism are not universally accepted by geologists. See: "Plates vs Plumes: A Geological Controversy" by Gillian R. Foulger (Wiley, 2011).

Mankind is far beyond the stage where all of our efforts are to maintain existence (tribal times). The joy of learning is often thwarted in our punitive educational systems. Fortunately, enough persevere to advance our understanding, which is the primary product of our civilization. All else flows from that.

We are fascinated by deep space expeditions and their difficulties, but forget how little we know about our own world especially the deep sea which comprises 70 percent of earth's surface. Volcanoes are windows into the deep interior of our planet and a key to its history and future on a planet that is at this time our only home.

Congratulations on a very well written explanation of the survey as well as the fundamental science. It takes some understanding, which this article provides, to begin to answer questions about the value of the work to society.

This is valuable research that will help us understand the thin shell of Earth we live on, including hazard mitigation.

"...Axial is remote and deep enough that it is vanishingly unlikely to ever cause anyone harm..." is unlikely is vanishing likely