Video: underwater volcano eruption

More than 1,800 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, the eruptions of an undersea volcano have revealed themselves on film, including the ejection of glowing red lava and the sounds of exploding gases.

“It’s the first place where we’ve been able to observe an active volcanic eruption underwater,” said Bill Chadwick of the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, who led the group that observed the volcano with a remotely operated vehicle.

“Most of the geology that we probably eventually see, a large part of that has happened underwater,” said Michael Perfit, a marine geologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “We have to look backwards and try to figure out how it happened. By looking at this, you get a sense of how these very important processes take place.”

The team will return with the remotely operated vehicle next spring to make more visual observations. But the last expedition could be hard to top.

From Discovery Channel: Watch amazing video here

Census of Marine Life & the Yeti Crab

This new species of crab was discovered off the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge in the South Pacific Ocean.

It was named Kiwa hirsuta kiwa, after the goddess of shellfish in Polynesian mythology, but has become known as the “yeti crab” because of its hairy appearance.

With 120,000 species now on-line, the Census of Marine Life considers itself half-way to its goal of checking and validating the 230,000 marine species currently known to science. Once completed, the World Register of Marine Species, called WoRMS, will be the first source for descriptions on all marine life.

The World Register of Marine Life finds itself in good company. In fact both the Register and the Census of Marine Life are working with similar projects like Species2000, The Encyclopedia of Life, and ZooBank to create places for researchers and educators to find authenticated and up-to-date information on the globe’s total species.

From Mongabay.com: Read more

See also:
www.marinespecies.org
www.coml.org

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