NeMO 1999 Video Clips

This page presents a selection of video highlights from the NeMO 1999 research expedition to the New Millennium Observatory (NeMO) at Axial Volcano, a seamount 300 miles offshore from the Oregon coast where a submarine volcanic eruption occurred in January 1998. To view a video, just click on one of the links below the "thumbnail" views. All of the video clips are in MPEG format and are available in two sizes. The small sized clips will load faster and play more smoothly than the larger ones. To the right of each thumbnail is a brief description of the video clip. Some of the clips play at 2 times normal speed.

Small/MPEG - 0.9 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.5 Mb	<-- This rumbleometer instrument was trapped in lava during the 1998 eruption. Here we are attaching a line to pull it free. The data recovered from the instrument show that the eruption lasted only 2 hours!	Small/MPEG - 0.9 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.8 Mb	<-- After the rumbleometer was pulled free, it floated to the top of a 50 m-long anchor line until the ship was ready to recover it. Then ROPOS cut the anchor line and the instrument floated up to the surface.
Small/MPEG - 1.8 Mb Large/MPEG - 5.1 Mb	<-- A line of active sulfide chimneys at the CASM vent site. These chimneys are covered with lush colonies of tubeworms. They were rejuvenated by the 1998 eruption.	Small/MPEG - 1.1 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.9 Mb	<-- A close-in pan view, showing the lush tubeworms on the chimneys at CASM.
Small/MPEG - 1.5 Mb Large/MPEG - 4.2 Mb	<-- If we zoom way in, we see that tiny pandorae worms are living on the tubes of the larger tubeworms at CASM.	Small/MPEG - 1.6 Mb Large/MPEG - 4.7 Mb	<-- Among the tubeworms at CASM was a large colony of palmworms (center).
Small/MPEG - 0.9 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.8 Mb	<-- View of the NeMO Net camera taking a picture on the seafloor. The images were transmitted acoustically up to a buoy at the surface.	Small/MPEG - 1.3 Mb Large/MPEG - 4.7 Mb	<-- View of the NeMO Net buoy being deployed. The buoy receives data from the seafloor via an acoustic modem, and then transmits it back to shore via satellite.
Small/MPEG - 1.2 Mb Large/MPEG - 3.5 Mb	<-- ROPOS samples a sulfide chimney at CASM, while a crab gets a closer look at the ROPOS manipulator arm.	Small/MPEG - 1.0 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.9 Mb	<-- ROPOS grabs a basketball sized sample of the 1998 lava flow.
Small/MPEG - 0.7 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.1 Mb	<-- A view of lava pillars in a collapsed part of the 1998 lava flow. These features form when the lava flow inflates and then drains out.	Small/MPEG - 1.9 Mb Large/MPEG - 5.8 Mb	<-- In areas where the 1998 lava drained out, the flow is hollow beneath a thin upper crust. Ledges on walls and pillars record "bathtub rings" (or crusts) as the molten lava was subsiding.
Small/MPEG - 0.5 Mb Large/MPEG - 1.4 Mb	<-- A friendly fathead sculpin wanders by in the eruption area.	Small/MPEG - 1.0 Mb Large/MPEG - 3.1 Mb	<-- Here 1998 lava drips into a pre-existing collapse pit and is frozen in the act.
Small/MPEG - 0.8 Mb Large/MPEG - 2.4 Mb	<-- This is a view of "Magnesia Vent", a site where microbial floc is coming out of the seafloor. The white material that looks like snow is produced by the microbial bloom.	Small/MPEG - 0.9 Mb Large/MPEG - 3.2 Mb	<-- In 1999, Magnesia Vent was expelling pulses of vent fluid laden with microbial floc, somewhat like smoke signals.