Near New Guinea, they brought up a black smoker . Undersea eruptions are not infrequent. Woods Hole has now analyzed the hydrophone data collected over the past three years and have located four sites on the East Pacific Rise where they think seafloor lava eruptions have taken place. Robert Ballard, the Carl Sagen of Oceanography, developed the Jason Project , which pioneered telepresence technologies and, as a spin-off, participatory journalism. It studied underwater volcanoes, deep-water crabs and fish, and underwater methane leaks in the Gulf of Alaska.
Flash animations show why .
Hang on, this may be a bumpy ride. The Alvin is probably the most famous of the research submersibles in the US , Europe and the World with a long and distinguished history . Here's an NPR interview . The Office of Naval Research website on Habitats is packed with ocean facts. The 1999 NeMo Cruise examined the relationships between volcanic events and the biologic communities that depend on them.