Undersea Volcano Caught on Camera

"We knew something weird was going on," said Woods Hole's Dan Fornari, a coauthor of the Geology report. "What we needed to do was go there and map the heck out of it."

The results are some rare images of brand-new lava meeting older lava and detailed maps showing how the new lava followed channels in older lava beds. More significantly, the eruption is a real-time example of how the Earth makes new crust -- which is what happens at ocean spreading centers like the East Pacific Rise.

"This is basically where oceanic crust is forming," said Donna Blackman, chair of the Ridge 2000 Program, which focuses research on ocean spreading centers. "This is the process that forms most of the skin of the Earth."

The East Pacific Rise is a central part of such research, Blackman said, because unlike other active spreading centers, it is in waters that are relatively easy to reach year-round, and there's a lot of earlier data there with which to compare.

Related Links:

Larry O'Hanlon's blog: Earth Impacts

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Howstuffworks.com: Volcanoes

Volcano World