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The Right Tool

The remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason works on the seafloor near the Havre underwater volcano northeast of New Zealand earlier this year. The volcano erupted in 2012 with a force that was estimated to be twice that of the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens, but because it occurred more than 1000 meters (3,300 feet) beneath the surface, the only sign was a massive raft of pumice floating in the ocean. WHOI geologist Adam Soule and Rebecca Carey from the University of Tasmania took Jason and the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry to explore the seafloor in and around the volcano. (Image courtesy of S. Adam Soule and Daniel Fornari, WHOI, and Rebecca Carey, Univ. of Tasmania/NSF/WHOI-MISO Facility, ©2015 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)