High-Resolution AUV Mapping and Targeted ROV Observations of Three Historical Lava Flows at Axial Seamount
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OceTHE OFFICIALa MAGAZINEn ogOF THE OCEANOGRAPHYra SOCIETYphy CITATION Clague, D.A., J.B. Paduan, D.W. Caress, W.W. Chadwick Jr., M. Le Saout, B.M. Dreyer, and R.A. Portner. 2017. High-resolution AUV mapping and targeted ROV observations of three historic lava flows at Axial Seamount. Oceanography 30(4):82–99, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.426. DOI https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2017.426 COPYRIGHT This article has been published in Oceanography, Volume 30, Number 4, a quarterly journal of The Oceanography Society. Copyright 2017 by The Oceanography Society. All rights reserved. USAGE Permission is granted to copy this article for use in teaching and research. Republication, systematic reproduction, or collective redistribution of any portion of this article by photocopy machine, reposting, or other means is permitted only with the approval of The Oceanography Society. Send all correspondence to: [email protected] or The Oceanography Society, PO Box 1931, Rockville, MD 20849-1931, USA. DOWNLOADED FROM HTTP://TOS.ORG/OCEANOGRAPHY CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF OCEAN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY AT THE MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM RESEARCH INSTITUTE High-Resolution AUV Mapping and Targeted ROV Observations of Three Historical Lava Flows at Axial Seamount By David A. Clague, Jennifer B. Paduan, David W. Caress, William W. Chadwick Jr., Morgane Le Saout, Brian M. Dreyer, and Ryan A. Portner MBARI’s autonomous underwater vehicle. Photo credit: Phil Sammet 82 Oceanography | Vol.30, No.4 ABSTRACT. The lava flows produced by eruptions at Axial Seamount in 1998, using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), 2011, and 2015 were mapped at 1 m resolution from autonomous underwater vehicles has enabled development of eruptive and (AUVs) developed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). tectonic histories of Axial Seamount A portion of the flows erupted in 2011 and 2015 are defined by pre- and post- and of the Endeavour Segment of the eruption AUV surveys. Data processing software, also developed at MBARI, precisely Juan de Fuca Ridge (Clague et al., 2013, coregisters pre- and post-eruption surveys to allow construction of difference maps 2014) that enhance study of recent vol- by subtracting a pre-eruption grid from a post-eruption grid. Such difference maps canic and hydrothermal activity on mid- are key to extracting detailed information about eruptive processes and emplacement ocean ridges. High-resolution mapping of the lava flows. All three eruptions began on the east side of the caldera, and each has also illuminated the distribution of produced ~25 × 106 m3 of thin channelized flows (with sheet lava channels, lobate lava eruptive and non-eruptive fissures, and interiors with pillars, and distal inflated pillow lobes) in the caldera and on the upper the relation of flow types and fissures to south or north rifts. The 1998 and 2011 eruptions propagated down the south rift, pre- and syn-eruptive geophysical obser- and the 2015 eruption propagated down the north rift. The 2011 and 2015 eruptions vations. The mapping data also permit formed shallow grabens surrounding new non-eruptive open fissures on the east rim accurate calculation of flow volumes, of the caldera and produced thick hummocky flows on upper to mid rifts, and the but uncertainties in eruption duration 2011 eruption also produced a thick hummocky flow on the lower south rift. Future still hamper determination of eruption eruptions at Axial Seamount will likely follow this pattern, regardless of which rift is rates. The scientific results made pos- the locus of the eruption. sible by these Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) technologi- INTRODUCTION detected a 2015 eruption in real time at cal advancements in high-resolution sea- The most voluminous volcanic activity Axial Seamount that triggered a rapid floor mapping are outlined here as part on Earth occurs in the deep sea (Crisp, response cruise (Chadwick et al., 2016). of this special issue celebrating MBARI’s 1984) along the global 65,000 km-long Axial Seamount is a submarine vol- 30-year anniversary. mid-ocean ridge system. Despite the cano astride the Juan de Fuca Ridge, high frequency of submarine eruptions 400 km offshore the US Pacific Northwest MAPPING AUV SURVEYS AT required to construct oceanic crust, these (Figure 1). It has a horseshoe-shaped AXIAL SEAMOUNT eruptions are rarely detected and even 3 × 8 km summit caldera that is deepest One of the primary tools for building more rarely studied in detail to under- to the northeast and whose rim is buried understanding of submarine eruptive stand eruption processes and lava flow by lava flows to the southeast. The sum- processes is the ability to map the lava emplacement in the submarine realm mit is connected to north- and south- flows and eruptive fissures at high res- (e.g., Fornari et al., 2012; Rubin et al., trending rift zones (Figure 1) and rises olution. Mapping of lava flows on the 2012). Historical submarine eruptions on to a depth of ~1,367 m with the shallow- ridge system using images from ship- mid-ocean ridges have been discovered est area on the southwest rim. The three based sonars, towed side-scan sonars and by water-column surveys that detected detected eruptions at Axial Seamount in cameras, and bottom observations from large water masses with temperature and 1998, 2011, and 2015 are the most recent submersibles began in the late 1970s chemical anomalies (megaplumes) above of >50 mapped lava flows emplaced in the (e.g., Ballard and van Andel, 1977; Ballard eruption sites, during submersible dives last 1,600 years (Clague et al., 2013). et al., 1979). More recent observation and that serendipitously encountered new High-resolution autonomous under- sampling studies have used ROVs that glassy lava flows, by repeat bathymetry water vehicle (AUV) bathymetric map- are spatially located using GPS-based surveys that revealed depth changes of the ping data of the historical flows on Axial long-baseline or ultra-short baseline nav- seafloor, or by recording of seismic activ- Seamount have illuminated how effu- igation. AUV mapping technology and ity on hydrophone arrays that accompa- sive lava flows are emplaced under vary- data processing techniques developed at nied these explorations. Most recently, ing eruptive conditions and the dynam- MBARI have focused on sites of histor- instruments on the Ocean Observatory ics of eruptive activity (Caress et al., 2012; ical (since the mid-1980s) eruptions on Initiative (OOI) cabled undersea net- Chadwick et al., 2013, 2016; Yeo et al., the Juan de Fuca and Gorda Ridges off- work (Kelley et al., 2014, 2015; Wilcock 2013). The mapping, combined with shore northwestern North America. Lava et al., 2016; Nooner and Chadwick, 2016) lava and sediment core sample collection flows produced during these eruptions Oceanography | December 2017 83 were studied in considerable detail soon a single, comprehensive AUV navigation capable of eight-hour surveys covering after their discovery (e.g., Fox et al., 1992; model. The surveys were conducted with 30 km of survey lines; by 2016, two AUVs Embley et al., 1995, 1999, 2000; Chadwick AUV altitudes between 50 m and 90 m, were operated simultaneously with each and Embley, 1998; Chadwick et al., 1998) with most at 50 m altitude. The current achieving 17-hour survey durations for a and provide context for high-resolution coverage at Axial encompasses 290 km2, total 160 km of surveying per day, along mapping data. including significant areas resurveyed with a fivefold increase in bathymet- Between 2006 and 2016, MBARI map- after the 2011 and 2015 eruptions to ric sounding density. Equally significant, ping AUVs (Caress et al., 2008) col- detect seafloor change. the MB-System software package used lected 1 m lateral, 10 cm vertical resolu- The submarine volcanic process stud- for survey planning and data processing tion bathymetry and side-scan data on ies undertaken at Axial Seamount require (Caress and Chayes, 1996, 2011; Caress Axial Seamount during 37 surveys as part well-navigated, repeatable, efficiently col- et al., 2008) has evolved to solve the prob- of six expeditions on four research ships. lected high-resolution seafloor mapping lems particular to surveying challenging The MBARI surveys were augmented data at depths ranging from 1,400 m to submarine topography. The near-vertical using Woods Hole Oceanographic over 2,500 m. Over the past 15 years, walls of Axial caldera required automated Institution’s (WHOI’s) AUV Sentry for these science requirements have helped pre-planning of the AUV vertical tra- four surveys in 2015, and five in 2017. All to drive continuing innovation in auton- jectory to avoid bottom crashes, and the 41 surveys completed by 2016 have been omous vehicle, sensor, and data process- high and narrow walls of some drained coregistered spatially by matching fea- ing technologies. MBARI began these lava ponds require multistage missions tures in overlapping data and solving for surveys with a single mapping AUV combining sections of constant depth and constant altitude operation. For any deep-ocean AUV-based sea- floor survey, the primary data processing challenge is achieving navigational accu- NorNorth racy similar to the 1 m bathymetric lateral RRiiftft resolution. Although the inertial naviga- Zone tion system (INS) used on MBARI AUVs Caldera limits navigational errors to 0.05% of dis- tance traveled, this translates to as much as 40 m accumulated error for an 80 km trackline survey. Coregistration within and between surveys at the 1 m level is attained by measuring both the lat- eral and the vertical navigational offsets required to match bathymetric features SouthSouth in crossing and overlapping swaths, and RRiiftft then solving for an optimal navigational Zone 45°N model fitting those features while also sat- isfying known feature positions (e.g., vent chimney locations from ROV dives) and minimizing perturbations to vehi- 40°N cle speed.