Karen Bemis
Thibaut Barreyre
Arran Peter Murch- 1Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, United States
- 2University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
- 3National Museum of Science and Nature, Tokyo, Japan
Editorial on the Research Topic
Early career scientists’ contributions to submarine volcanism and associated hydrothermal systems
Recent submarine eruptions, including those at Axial Volcano (Nooner and Chadwick, 2016), West Mata Submarine Volcano (Chadwick et al., 2019), “Volcano F″ in the Tofua Arc (Brandl et al., 2020), and a new volcano off the eastern coast of Mayotte (Feuillet et al., 2021), have spurred interest in submarine volcanism. Submarine volcanoes have all the eruptive products of subaerial volcanoes (e.g., lava flows, explosions, ash/lapilli/pumice, cone growth) combined with extensive hydrothermal systems through which they influence ocean chemistry and sustain complex ecosystems (e.g., Cas and Giordano, 2014). Interactions between the volcanic systems and the various tectonic/magmatic settings (including mid-oceanic spreading ridges, intraplate settings, and subduction zones) that host them produce a complex variety of responses.
Advances in oceanographic data Research Topic through the use of remotely operated and autonomous underwater vehicles (ROVs/AUVs), along with seafloor geophysical instrumentation at cabled submarine observatories, have allowed monitoring of submarine volcanoes before, during, and after eruptions in unprecedented detail (e.g., Kelley et al., 2014). This detail is leading to greater understanding of past (ancient) deposits from submarine volcanoes, present hazards of such volcanism, and the processes driving submarine eruptions (e.g., Cantner et al., 2014; Murch et al., 2022; Yeo et al., 2022).
This Research Topic explores the diversity of submarine volcanoes, their associated hydrothermal systems, and their tectonic context.
The products of both shallow and deep submarine volcanoes provide a record of past eruption processes. Knafelc et al. used radiogenic isotopes and petrographic textures to elucidate the eruption history of Havre volcano. Pumice from the 2012 Havre submarine eruption, during which rhyolites were emplaced as minor lava flows, a field of sunken pumice, and a volumetrically-dominant pumice raft, contained diverse rock fragments sourced from varying depths and representing earlier eruptions. Crystal fractionation melt models indicated the likely stages between a basaltic forerunner and the current rhyolites.
McIntosh et al. reconstructed the original water contents of marine tephras from sedimentary core C9010E using recent advances in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). These tephras were erupted by the shallow silicic submarine Oomurodashi volcano in the northern Izu-Bonin arc. Numerical modeling of hydration and volatile processes suggest OH contents reflect quench fragmentation within the shallow submarine edifice and imply the marine tephra layers in the core were produced in the same eruption as subaerial tephra deposits on nearby Izu-Oshima and Toshima islands.
Shifting gears to examine the interaction of volcanoes and ocean as active processes, Preston et al. demonstrated how in situ methane sensors on an AUV can aid discovery of hydrothermal venting sites. Methane signals tracked hydrothermal output similarly to standard turbidity sensors, picking up plumes at 2.2–3.3 km from a reference source, and more sensitively than temperature, salinity, and oxygen instruments, the signals of which dilute with background physical mixing. The introduction of change-point detection algorithms (streaming cross-correlation and regime identification) is projected to facilitate real-time hydrothermalism discovery.
Diving deeper into hydrothermal plume behavior, Bemis et al. extracted the bending direction for the main plume rising above the Grotto Vent in Main Endeavour Field, Juan de Fuca Ridge, as a measure of the convolution of hydrothermal flux rates and the strength of ambient ocean bottom currents. They observed that the prominence of southward bottom currents decreased systematically from 2010 to 2014. After considering spectral properties of the plume observations and regional observations of winds and currents during 2010–2014, they concluded that the bottom current generating mechanisms are either related to tidal processes or not periodic, with the systematic change most likely related to changes in venting output along the Endeavour Segment which changed the impact of the cumulative plume entrainment fields.
This Research Topic of articles explores how technological advances can increase our understanding of submarine volcanism, past and present. We anticipate this Research Topic will provide a variety of starting places for future research on submarine volcanism. We hope it will stimulate discussion.
Author contributions
KB took the lead in writing the Editorial, TB and APM contributed to writing. All the authors discussed the content of the Editorial.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
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References
Brandl, P. A., Schmid, F., Augustin, N., Grevemeyer, I., Arculus, R. J., Devey, C. W., et al. (2020). The 6–8 Aug 2019 eruption of ‘volcano F’in the Tofua arc, Tonga. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 390, 106695. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2019.106695
Cantner, K., Carey, S., and Nomikou, P. (2014). Integrated volcanologic and petrologic analysis of the 1650 AD eruption of Kolumbo submarine volcano, Greece. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 269, 28–43. doi:10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2013.10.004
Cas, R. A. F., and Giordano, G. (2014). Submarine volcanism: A review of the constraints, processes and products, and relevance to the cabo de Gata volcanic succession. Italian J. Geoscience 133, 362–377. doi:10.3301/IJG.2014.46
Chadwick, W. W., Rubin, K. H., Merle, S. G., Bobbitt, A. M., Kwasnitschka, T., and Embley, R. W. (2019). Recent eruptions between 2012 and 2018 discovered at west mata submarine volcano (NE Lau Basin, SW Pacific) and characterized by new ship, AUV, and ROV data. Front. Mar. Sci. 495. doi:10.3389/fmars.2019.00495
Feuillet, N., Jorry, S., Crawford, W. C., Deplus, C., Thinon, I., Jacques, E., et al. (2021). Birth of a large volcanic edifice offshore Mayotte via lithosphere-scale dyke intrusion. Nat. Geosci. 14, 787–795. doi:10.1038/s41561-021-00809-x
Kelley, D. S., Delaney, J. R., and Juniper, S. K. (2014). Establishing a new era of submarine volcanic observatories: Cabling axial seamount and the Endeavour segment of the juan de Fuca ridge. Mar. Geol. 352, 426–450. doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2014.03.010
Murch, A. P., Portner, R. A., Rubin, K. H., and Clague, D. A. (2022). Deep-subaqueous implosive volcanism at West Mata seamount, Tonga. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 578, 117328. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2021.117328
Nooner, S. L., and Chadwick, W. W. (2016). Inflation-predictable behavior and co-eruption deformation at Axial Seamount. Science 354 (6318), 1399–1403. doi:10.1126/science.aah4666
Keywords: submarine volcanism, seismology, hydrothermal systems, lava flows, marine geoscience
Citation: Bemis K, Barreyre T and Murch AP (2023) Editorial: Early career scientists’ contributions to submarine volcanism and associated hydrothermal systems. Front. Earth Sci. 11:1184033. doi: 10.3389/feart.2023.1184033
Received: 10 March 2023; Accepted: 04 April 2023;
Published: 14 April 2023.
Edited and reviewed by:
Millard F. Coffin, University of Tasmania, AustraliaCopyright © 2023 Bemis, Barreyre and Murch. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Karen Bemis, bemis@marine.rutgers.edu