The Pit Virtual Site

Pit Vent is located on the 1998 lava flow in an area of mostly uncollapsed lobate lavas. Nevertheless, there are some small (1-m deep) collapse pits in the area, showing that some lava drain-out occurred here, and that many of the lava lobes are hollow beneath their solid upper crust. In hydrothermally active areas, these hollow cavities act as incubators and provide an ideal habitat for heat-loving microorganisms that live beneath the seafloor. This was dramatically illustrated when ROPOS accidentally broke a hole in the upper crust of a hollow lava lobe, which initiated an outpouring of hydrothermal fluid carrying white microbial floc (the bi-product of a microbial bloom). This "snowstorm" lasted for several hours.

	Fly-through movie The Quicktime movie below allows you to get a virtual tour of the site by moving through it. Click the button at the lower left to play the movie. Both the fly-through movie and the panorama may take some time to load, so please be patient.		Panorama The Quicktime VR panorama below gives you a 360° view of the site. Click and drag your mouse inside the panorama window to look in different directions. The buttons in the bottom left zoom in or out and show hotlinks to video clips.

If you do not see two movie windows or Quicktime icons above, go to the Help page.