Plume 1400 Meters High Discovered at the Seafloor off the Northern California Margin

Abstract

On 17 May 2009, the Kongsberg EM302 multibeam echo sounder on board the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Okeanos Explorer was collecting bathymetry and water column acoustic data offshore of northern California when it suddenly imaged a previously undiscovered 1400-meter-high plume (Figure 1) rising from the seafloor at 40°32.13′N, 124°47.01′W. The ship was mapping in water depths of approximately 1830 meters and heading east up the northern California continental margin 20 kilometers north of the Gorda escarpment. The continental shelf in this area is known to have subsurface and water column thermogenic and methane gas, although no plumes from this area previously have been reported from deeper than the continental shelf.

Department

Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping

Publication Date

8-11-2009

Volume

90, Issue 32

Journal Title

EOS Transactions, American Geophysical Union

Pages

275

Publisher Place

Washington DC, USA

Rights

©2009. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Publisher

Wiley

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1029/2009EO320003

Document Type

Journal Article

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