Jason samples vents at the East Pacific Rise
A multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team traveled to the East Pacific Rise at 9°50'N in April 2021 to better understand the geophysical, chemical and biological connections at the hydrothermal vent fields there in advance of a seafloor eruption expected to occur in the near future. The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason carried instruments and experiments to the seafloor and brought physical samples and high-quality images back to the surface throughout the 45-day expedition on the research vessel Roger Revelle in April 2021.
Watch a recording of the livestream of Jason working at the East Pacific Rise.
The research expedition was funded by the National Science Foundation, and was led by Daniel Fornari and Lauren Mullineaux (WHOI). The research teams included investigators from WHOI, Rutgers University, University of Bergen (Norway), Western Washington University, Lehigh University, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Oregon State University Institute of Marine Biology. All imagery displayed here were captured by a seafloor lander equipped with deep-sea digital still and 4k video cameras developed by the WHOI MISO Facility (Fornari) in collaboration with Ocean Imaging Systems, E. Perrone, and Deep-Sea Power and Light.