Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Science Team.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Unusual spiny crab spotted on NW Rota 1 volcano . Crabs are opportunistic predators at vent sites. The body of this crab is ~2 in. (~5 cm) across.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Some common zooplankton (mostly copepods) collected near the surface over East Diamante volcano.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Map showing operations on Mariana Arc Submarine Ring of Fire Expedition.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. A Digital Still Camera (DSC) image of sulfur balls (~ 0.25 inches in diameter, > 0.5 cm) littering the seafloor near Brimstone Pit.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. The R/V Thomas G. Thompson holding station over Maug caldera while the crew prepares to deploy ROPOS. The Thompson is 86 meters from bow to stern (274 ft).

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Photograph of three small (~30 cm tall) activel y venting spires sitting on top of one of the chimneys in the Black Forest vent field. The chimneys themselves are about 7 m tall. The fluids here are venting at 240øC and are expelling black (mineral-rich) smoke in the ocean.

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. A perspective view of the several eruption cones inside the East Diamante caldera. Our CTD tow (black sawtooth line) mapped out a plume of particles carried southeast from the Black Forest vent field by the local currents (yellow arrow).

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. A close-up of the tubeworm Lamelli brachia, found at both Kasuga-2 and Daikoku volcanoes. The tubeworm bushes at Daikoku were up to 1 meter tall (~3 ft).

Pacific Ring of Fire Expedition. Yellow and orange microbial mats forming "bioreactor" mound with a thin crust and small chimneys on top. The crusty outer coating acts as a thermal blanket to elevate internal temperature from diffuse venting and help retain reduced microbial nutrients. This mound is approximately 1 meter (3 ft) across.

Charleston Bump Expedition. A 3-D image of the Charleston Bump. This feature was first discovered by John Maffitt of the United States Coast Survey in 1853.

Charleston Bump Expedition. This little gooseneck barnacle lives only on crab carapaces.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Isopod eyes showing structure similar to fly eyes. This parasitic crustacean (isopod) sometimes attaches to the foreheads of fish. Photo MVC-021F.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Image of a larval crab taken through a microscope.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Image of a larval shrimp taken through a microscope.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Closeup image of a species of crinoid.

Charleston Bump Expedition. A curly worm. This beautiful orange segmented worm, a Syllid (related to earthworms), has long white appendages called "dorsal cirri" on every segment. They curled in and out from its body like the paper party favors that children get at birthday celebrations. Image Curlyworm.jpg. Captured August 3 on Dive 3406.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Jerry McLelland, a professor at the University of Southern Mississippi, reaches into the pipe dredge to extract a sample. This was the first successful use of the pipe dredge, custom-built for the Charleston Bump expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Currents caused as result of Gulf Stream encounterin encountering the Charleston Bump and perturbing flow. The Charleston Bump complex causes the Gulf Stream to speed up and be deflected offshore. Even when the weather is beautiful, waters deflected off the Bump ofte n result in standing waves and white water adjacent to glassy seas.

Charleston Bump Expedition. With rope in hand, sub crew member Jim Sullivan dives from the R/V Seward Johnson to "hook" the resurfaced submersible Due to the ripping Gulf Stream current, his timing had to be perfect.

Charleston Bump Expedition. South Carolina Department of Natural Resources Fish Biologist Dave Wyanski prepares to enter the JSL II sphere prior to launching for for Dive #3407.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Conducting CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth) operations in the Charleston Bump area. Just before midnight, Fred Andrus, helps to lower the 2400 lb CTD over the ship's starboard side.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Finding good use for downtime, Leslie Sautter, director of Project Oceanica, pulls together expedition-related educational products to be posted on the oceanica.cofc.edu Web site.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Scientists crowd around the bio-boxes at the front of ALVIN eager to see what was collected on that day's dive.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Dr. Tom Shirley from the University of Alask a at Faibanks communicating from the plot room to the bridge.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Large primnoid coral loaded with brittle stars on Dickins Seamount.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Large paragorgia coral with galatheid crabs on Pratt Seamount at 800 meters depth.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. ALVIN being lifted onto the deck of WHOI R/V ATLANTIS by the A-frame, with swimmers Bruce Strickrott and Sean McPeak (Chief ALVIN pilot and electronics technician respectively) working the recovery.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. ALVIN and WHOI R/V ATLANTIS, swimmers Bruce Strickrott and Sean McPeak (Chief ALVIN pilot and electronics technician respectively) working the recovery.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Large bamboo coral with galatheid crabs and sweeper tentacles on Dickins Seamount at 800 meters.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Large paragorgia coral with galatheid crabs in a sponge forest on Welker Seamount at about 700 meters depth.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Paragorgia sclerites seen under the microsco pe. Sclerites are tiny microscopic bones embedded in the fleshy polyps of octocorals. The large sclerites are called "girdled spindles", the smaller ones are "eight radiate".

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Paragorgia polyps. When retracted, the pinnate tentacles of the polyp are less evident. This is a defensive posture to guard the tasty polyps from predators.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Multibeam image of Ely Seamount showing a deep caldera and lava flows.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. Peter Etnoyer, Aurelie Shapiro, and Shinobu Okano inspect a large dead bamboo coral specimen brought to the surface by ALVIN.

Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition. 2004 Gulf of Alaska Seamount science party.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Dive 3406.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Dive 3406. Sipunculid worm. See image expl0342.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Dive 3406.

Charleston Bump Expedition. Dive 3406.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition. This parasitic crustacean (isopod) sometimes attaches to the foreheads of fish.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.

Charleston Bump Expedition.