NEPTUNE Videos

Please contact Deborah Kelley (kelley@ocean.washington.edu) for video use permission.


Faulty Towers

Smoker Images near a 300C vent on the east face of the Faulty Towers complex, Mothra Hydrothermal Field, Juan de Fuca Ridge. Steep-sided pinnacles in this area rise 22 m above the seafloor. The line holding the white marker is 1-m in length. Small tube worm bushes dot the foreground, which are enclosed by hydrothermal sediment. This vent site is at a water depth of 2270 m.

Lost City

Alvin imagery of carbonate pinnacles in the Lost City Field, 30 N Mid-Atlantic Ride. The structures rise 60 m above the seafloor. Their natural colors are white to brown (when old), and venting temperatures of 40-75C have been measured. The field is hosted on mantle material believed to be 1.5 m.y, old. It is the first field of its kind to be discovered.
See http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/press/01/pr0156.htm

Jason imagery of the sulfide edifice "Puffer", Main Endeavour Field, Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge. Parasitic chimneys on this edifice reach 380C. Also shown are healthy tube worms with red gills. This field is at a water depth of 2200 m.

Smoke and Mirrors

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Jason 1991 imagery showing healthy tube worms, sulfide worms, and palm worms on the black smoker edifice "Smoke and Mirrors" (S&M) in the Main Endeavour Field, Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge. These chimneys host dense macrofaunal and symbiotic microbial communities that thrive on volcanic gases released from depth.

Vigorously venting 380C chimney on the sulfide edifice "Sully" in the Main Endeavour Field, Endeavour Segment Juan de Fuca Ridge. The instrument shown to the left, measures temperature and resistivity (chlorinity) (developed by M. Lilley at the University of Washington). Fluids venting from this structures, as well as others in the Main Endeavour Field, are actively undergoing boiling, and condensation at depth.

Twin Peaks

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Jason imagery collected during the Edifice Rex project. This sped up imagery shows the approach to the actively venting 8-m tall chimney "Flying Buttress". Extinct sulfides enclose the active structures. Also shown is close-up imagery of Flying Buttress and the complex macrofaunal communities that cover the outer surface of the structure. White bacterial mats are also visible that coat tube worm communities.

Actively Venting Flange

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Actively venting flange in the Main Endeavour Field, Endeavour Segment, Juan de Fuca Ridge. These structures host buoyant pools of 360C fluids, which flow out from the main sulfide edifices. They are reminiscent of "upside down" waterfalls. The surface of the pools form reflective mirror planes bounded by the 360C hydrothermal fluids and surrounding 2C seawater. They are common to the Endeavour system, and these perpendicular ledges may grow to be the size of Alvin.