Underwater volcano is Earth's biggest

Tamu Massif rivals the size of Olympus Mons on Mars.

From Nature (Alexandra Witze)

Geophysicists have discovered what they say is the largest single volcano on Earth, a 650-kilometre-wide beast the size of the British Isles lurking beneath the waters of the northwest Pacific Ocean.

 >>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

Tamu Massif is the largest feature of the Shatsky Rise mountain range, marked on this map, situated around 1,000 miles east of Japan.

The range was formed following the eruption of the Tamu Massif volcano between 130 and 145 million years ago

The megavolcano has been inactive for some 140 million years.
But its very existence will help geophysicists to set limits on how much magma can be stored in Earth's crust and pour out onto the surface.
It also shows that Earth can produce volcanoes on par with Olympus Mons on Mars, which, at 625 kilometres across, was until now the biggest volcano known in the Solar System.

“This says that here on Earth we have analogous volcanoes to the big ones we find on Mars,” says William Sager, a marine geologist at the University of Houston in Texas.
“I’m not sure anybody would have guessed that.”
Sager and his colleagues describe the structure, named Tamu Massif, in Nature Geoscience on 8 September.
‘Tamu’ is an acronym for Texas A&M University in College Station, where Sager was formerly employed.

  This chart shows the Tamu Massif's location along the Shatsky Rise - a mountain range beneath the Pacific.

A single eruption from the volcano is thought to have caused the range to form between 130 and 145 million years ago.

The chart also shows Tamu Massif's relative size to Mars' Olympus Mons volcano

Tamu Massif has been long known as one of three large mountains that make up an underwater range called the Shatsky Rise.
The rise, about 1,500 kilometres east of Japan, formed near a junction where three plates of Earth’s crust once pulled apart.

Shallow rock cores from Tamu had previously revealed that it was made of lava.
But geologists thought that the mountain, which rises 4 kilometres from the sea floor, might have built up from several volcanoes erupting such that their lava merged into one pile.
The islands of Hawaii and Iceland were built this way.

 Seismic tracks from cruise MGL1004 of the R/V Marcus G. Langseth.  Blue and green dots show ocean bottom seismometer locations used for seismic refraction lines (A-B, C-D).

Heavy red lines indicate multichannel seismic lines. 

Dotted lines show planned future MCS lines and purple line shows extra multibeam bathymetry data collection. 

Yellow stars indicate sites where drill cores were obtained

Sager and his colleagues were startled by findings they made after sailing the research vessel Marcus G. Langseth over Tamu in 2010 and 2012.
They used air guns to send seismic waves through the mountain, and monitored the reflections.
The seismic waves penetrated several kilometres into the massif — and showed that all of its lava flows dipped away from the volcano’s summit, implying a central magma vent.
“From whatever angle you look at it, the lava flows appear to come from the centre of this thing,” says Sager.

Over time, the lava coursed downhill and then solidified, building up a volcano with a long, low profile similar to that of a shield laid on the ground.
The world’s biggest active shield volcano, Mauna Loa on Hawaii, has an areal footprint just 15% of Tamu’s — but Mauna Loa is taller, rising 9 kilometres from sea floor to summit.
Scott Bryan, a geologist at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, warns that not all of Tamu may have come from a single magma vent. There could be separate sources, deeper than the seismic waves penetrated, that could have oozed out lava and inflated the mountain from below, he says.

Because ship time is at a premium, the study is one of the first to peer at the internal geometry of these massive underwater mountains.
It is possible that other megavolcanoes are waiting to be discovered.
“There may be bigger ones out there,” says Sager.

Links :

• National Geographic : New Giant Volcano Below Sea Is Largest in the World
• University of Houston : Scientists confirm existence of largest single volcano on Earth
• DailyMail : Volcano the size of Oregon discovered beneath the Pacific Ocean (but luckily it's extinct)

Angelfish

ANGELFISH - Short Film from Michael Tyburski

Synopsis: While searching for isolation, an aimless young man named August moves to live aboard a sailboat on New York City's East River.

"Tyburski’s emotional depiction of the unexpected secondary effects of globalization on the development of today’s society exudes more sincerity and humility than most of his other contemporaries. This film is a rare account of the superb threads in the human mind."
- Stephan Timonie, HY.GEN.IC -

Rio time-lapse

Rio from ScientiFantastic

In this compilation video, most of the locations are within the city of Rio De Janeiro, but also the famous Iguazú Falls on the border of the Brazilian state of Paraná and the Argentinian province of Misiones.

In 2011 Iguazú Falls was announced as one of the seven winners of the New Seven Wonders of Nature by the New Seven Wonders of the World Foundation.

 >>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

RIO DE JANEIRO
No wonder the beautiful city of Rio De Janeiro was chosen to host the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper.

Part of the city has been designated as a World Heritage Site, named "Rio de Janeiro: Carioca Landscapes between the Mountain and the Sea", identified by UNESCO in the category Cultural Landscape.
Rio de Janeiro is one of the most visited cities in the southern hemisphere and is known for its natural settings, carnival celebrations, samba, Bossa Nova, balneario beaches such as Barra da Tijuca, Copacabana, Ipanema, and Leblon.

Some of the most famous landmarks in addition to the beaches include the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer ("Cristo Redentor") atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car.

First view inside of a ship in Google Street View

A $60 million research ship funded by a Google executive (Eric Schmidt) R/V Falkor which set sail from San Francisco last month to study a "dead zone" in the Pacific Ocean and other mysteries of the sea.

 Falkor ship docking at the Exploratorium pier

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

The 272-foot vessel, Falkor, carries an unmanned submarine that will travel deep into the ocean off Vancouver Island to study an area where sea life dies each year from a periodic lack of oxygen, called hypoxia.
Researchers speculate that the cause may be a changing climate or caustic runoff like sewage from land.

The Falkor is funded by the Schmidt Ocean Science Institute, which was co-founded by Google executive Eric Schmidt and his wife, Wendy. (see Forbes)
After stopping to study the dead zone, the ship named for a flying creature in the movie "The NeverEnding Story" will move on to study a submarine volcano, the Axial Seamount, about 300 miles west of Oregon.
A microbiologist will study the tiny organisms living for millions of years inside fissures in the volcanic rock, and another scientist will study viruses that have adapted to the unique habitat.

And scientists working aboard the Falkor are treated to amenities not found on the usual research ship: a sauna and down-filled bunks among them, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"It may not be needed up here," Victor Zykov, the institute's director of research, told the newspaper about the sauna.
"But when we're up in cold Canadian waters, the scientists and crew will surely appreciate it after a long day on deck."

Waiting this program, the Google Oceans team has launched the projet to collect indoor StreetView inside the ship in a prove of concept way to show the Business Photos possibilities for photographers, agencies and business owners.

Falkor located right off the pier at the SF Exploratorium

Now with over 300 panos on 9 different levels, this is the most complicated Google indoor Street View collect to date.

Research Vessel Highlights

Jump to any of these to begin exploring :

click on the different pictures to play with the panoramic 360° pictures.

Google team also captured wet and dry labs, quarters, tool sheds, galley, kitchens, gym, library, networking, decks and lounges, towers and a few staff Easter eggs for fun...

Control Room : geophysical watch standing room containing multi-beam sonar processing, ROV controls, general ship operations etc. Google team rebooted a Windows blue screened before we took the shots so Eric Schmidt would not get slack for it later

Engine Room : the cleanest engine room most have ever witnessed. All in Google colors too!

Bridge : bonus points if you know the function of the circles on the front windshields.

Remember you can zoom into areas / control boards on street view to get a better view.

Sauna & Lounges : after over 6 years as an employee, it really does look like what one would expect Google on a boat to be. 

Helideck : the ominous dramatic clouds later cleared from the tower, but we think it looks awesome this way. Look for the Oracle America’s Cup catamaran in the bay.

Crows nest : to capture the views from the very top, we turned off the radar due to higher levels of radiation in the hopes of me one day having children and taking advantage of Google's great parental benefits and daycare services.

The view includes the Bay Bridge, financial district skyline, Exploratorium's solar grid, Coit Tower, and a smattering of navigation and data collection devices (GPS, Inmarsat C...)

By the way, the Google Ocean team announces GME terrain launch with cooler views in 3D in parnership with the SOI's multibeam sonar bathymetry data during their recent KT Boundary expedition last March 2013 to map the asteroid that ended the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago) hitting Earth in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, forming what is today called the Chicxulub impact crater.

 see with Google Maps Engine

Links :

• DailyMail : Google Chairman Eric Schmidt unveils $94million ocean research super ship
• GeoGarage blog : Falkor mapping Roatan's spectacular deep reefs  / Wreck of Captain Scott's ship discovered off Greenland by SOI
  

Is the ocean the real final frontier?

White flocculent mats in and around the extremely gassy, high-temperature (>100°C, 212°F) white smokers at Champagne Vent, Northwest Eifuku volcano, Marianas Trench Marine
(NOAA 2004)

From Slate & Future Tense (by Katherine Mangu-Ward)

The sea is the underdog, but it has some advantages over space.
 
We’ve been to the moon and just about everywhere on Earth.
So what’s left to discover?
In September, Future Tense is publishing a series of articles in response to the question, “Is exploration dead?”
Read more about modern-day exploration of the sea, space, land, and more unexpected areas.

We shall not cease from exploration and the end of our exploring shall be to return where we started and know the place for the first time.
That tidbit of T.S. Eliot is stolen from Graham Hawkes, a submarine designer who really, really loves the ocean.
Hawkes is famous for hollering, “Your rockets are pointed in the wrong goddamn direction!” at anyone who suggests that space is the Final Frontier.
The deep sea, he contends, is where we should be headed: The unexplored oceans hold mysteries more compelling, environments more challenging, and life-forms more bizarre than anything the vacuum of space has to offer.
Plus, it’s cheaper to go down than up.

Graham Hawkes: Fly the seas on a submarine with wings (2008)

Graham Hawkes takes us aboard his graceful, winged submarines to the depths of planet Ocean (a.k.a. "Earth"). It's a deep blue world we landlubbers rarely see in 3D.

Is Hawkes right? Should we all be crawling back into the seas from which we came?
Ocean exploration is certainly the underdog, so to speak, in the sea vs. space face-off.
There’s no doubt that the general public considers space the sexier realm.

James Cameron teams up with NASA scientists to explore the Mid-Ocean Ridge, a submerged chain of mountains that band the Earth and are home to some of the planet's most unique life forms.

The occasional James Cameron joint aside, there’s much more cultural celebration of space travel, exploration, and colonization than there is of equivalent underwater adventures.
In a celebrity death match between Captain Kirk and Jacques Cousteau, Kirk is going to kick butt every time.

In fact, the rivalry can feel a bit lopsided—the chess club may consider the football program a competitor for funds and attention, but the jocks aren’t losing much sleep over the price of pawns and cheerleaders rarely turn out for chess tournaments.
But somehow the debate rages on in dorm rooms, congressional committee rooms, and Internet chat rooms.

Damp ocean boosters often aim to borrow from the rocket-fueled glamour of space.
Submersible entrepreneur Marin Beck talks a big game when he says, “We can go to Mars, but the deep ocean really is our final frontier,” but he giggles when a reporter calls him the “Elon Musk of the deep sea,” an allusion to the founder of the for-profit company Space X who is rumored to be the real-life model for Iron Man’s Tony Stark.

Even Hawkes admits that he “grew up dreaming of aircraft”—though he means planes, not spaceships—but “then I got to look at this subsea stuff and I saw this is where aviation was all those years ago. The whole field was completely backwards, and that’s why I jumped in.”

 Mariana Trench reaches a maximum-known depth of 10,911 m (36,069 feet)
At this depth (the deepest point on earth), the pressure is more than 8 tons per square inch, 
or the equivalent of an average-sized woman holding up 48 jumbo jets.

>>> geolocalization with the Marine GeoGarage <<<

While many of the technologies for space and sky are the similar, right down to the goofy suits with bubble heads—the main difference is that in space, you’re looking to keep pressure inside your vehicle and underwater you’re looking to keep pressure out—there’s often a sense that that sea and space are competitors rather than compadres.

They needn’t be, says Guillermo Söhnlein, a man who straddles both realms.
Söhnlein is a serial space entrepreneur and the founder of the Space Angels Network.
The network funds startups aimed for the stars, but his most recent venture is Blue Marble Exploration, which organizes expeditions in manned submersibles to exotic underwater locales.

As usual, the fight probably comes down to money.
The typical American believes that NASA is eating up a significant portion of the federal budget (one 2007 poll found that respondents pinned that figure at one-quarter of the federal budget), but the space agency is actually nibbling at a Jenny Craig–sized portion of the pie.
At about $17 billion, government-funded space exploration accounts for about 0.5 percent of the federal budget.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration—NASA’s soggy counterpart—gets much less, a bit more than $5 billion for a portfolio that, as the name suggests, is more diverse.

But the way Söhnlein tells the story, this zero sum mind-set is the result of a relatively recent historical quirk: For most of the history of human exploration, private funding was the order of the day.
Even some of the most famous examples of state-backed exploration—Christopher Columbus’ long petitioning of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, for instance, or Sir Edmund Hillary’s quest to climb to the top of Everest—were actually funded primarily by private investors or nonprofits.

But that changed with the Cold War, when the race to the moon was fueled by government money and gushers of defense spending wound up channeled into submarine development and other oceangoing tech.

“That does lead to an either/or mentality. That federal money is taxpayer money which has to be accounted for, and it is a finite pool that you have to draw from against competing needs, against health care, science, welfare,” says Söhnlein.
“In the last 10 to 15 years, we are seeing a renaissance of private finding of exploration ventures. On the space side we call it New Space, on the ocean side we have similar ventures.”
And the austerity of the current moment doesn’t hurt.
“The private sector is stepping up as public falls down. We’re really returning to the way it always was.”

And when it’s private dough, the whole thing stops being a competition.
Instead, it depends on what individuals with deep pockets are pumped about—or what makes for a good sell on a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter.

Looking for alien life forms?
You probably think you’re a natural space nerd, but you’re wrong.
If the eternal popularity of “Is There Life on Mars?” stories is any indication, an awful lot of people are just hoping for some company. We really have no idea what’s hanging out at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, but there are solid reasons to think the prospects for biological novelty (and perhaps even companionship for humanity) are better down there than they are in Mars’ Valles Marineris.

Want a fallback plan for when that final environmental catastrophe occurs?
Underwater or floating habitats may offer fewer challenges than space colonies if you’re looking to quickly build a self-sustaining place to live when things cool down, warm up, dry out, or otherwise return to fitness for human habitation.

If you’re just looking for wide open spaces, the vastness of space may ultimately prove your final frontier, but Söhnlein has a very human take on the question: “For myself,” he says, “I’d probably go with the oceans. Humanity has millennia to explore the cosmos. But I have only decades or—depending on who you believe—centuries. And there’s plenty to discover down there to fill my lifetime.”

Links :

• GeoGarage blog : The last dive? Funding for human expeditions in the ocean may have run aground /