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. RAFOS Plume Tracking
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map of RAFOS track and plume, click for animationTracking an Event Plume
Gorda Ridge, 1996

An early response cruise to the site of the Gorda Ridge eruption in 1996 found a large event plume in March, and a second cruise found a different event plume in April. This second event plume became the first to be seeded and tracked with a neutrally buoyant RAFOS drifter float. The RAFOS drifter tracked the eddy-like rotation of event plumes and allowed us, for the first time, to resample the same plume 2 months later. Little chemical change was found between sampling periods, suggesting that event plumes have a long residence time as discrete entities in the deep ocean. The Gorda Ridge event was unusual in another way, in that venting was extinguished within 3 months of the eruption, much faster than at either Cleft or CoAxial. Click the image to view an animation of the float track from April to June, 1996.

Reference:
Lupton, J.E., E.T. Baker, N. Garfield, G.J. Massoth, R.A. Feely, J.P. Cowen, R.R. Greene, and T.A. Rago (1998): Tracking the evolution of a hydrothermal event plume with a RAFOS neutrally buoyant drifter. Science, 280, 1052-1055.

 
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