NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2013 ROV Shakedown and Field Trials in the U.S. Atlantic Canyons. Download larger version (mp4, 8.3 MB).
Bubbles! We’ve got bubbles! In 2012, the team on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer imaged streams of bubbles rising from the seafloor off the coast of Virginia using the ship’s multibeam sonar. At the time, gaseous seeps were not known to exist along the Atlantic continental margin. Since then, analysis of multibeam data has suggested that more than 600 such seeps are found in the area and many of these have now been visually surveyed.
This discovery has important implications for our understanding of how methane is transported from the seafloor into the ocean and atmosphere, as well as processes of ocean acidification.