This summer , the 235-foot research vessel Marcus G. Langseth set out into the ocean off the Pacific Northwest. These cables were adorned with scientific instruments able to peer into the beating heart of a monster a mile below the waves: Axial Seamount, a volcanic mountain. If they did , “it’s game over,” said Sam Mitchell, a submarine volcanologist who joined the voyage. Scientists aboard spent 33 days in July and August hoping to create 3D maps of the magmatic ponds and pathways in an individual, active submarine volcano for the very first time. If the researchers succeeded, they would provide a view of a hyperactive volcano that had never been seen.

Source: New York Times December 03, 2019 07:30 UTC