Highlights from the final remotely operated vehicle dive of Windows to the Deep 2019, the 100th ocean exploration expedition conducted on NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer. During the dive, we explored the seafloor around recently discovered methane plumes near the well-studied Norfolk Seeps, the location where the U.S. Atlantic seeps story first began in 2012.
While no active gas bubble streams were observed during the dive, fluid seepage was imaged approximately midway through the dive, with fluids emerging from a rounded mound whose morphology was similar to features that are cored by gas hydrate on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico and offshore the U.S. Pacific margin. The team also observed both dead and live Bathymodiolus mussel shells as well as dense bacterial mats and distributed echinoderms, anemones, rays, fish, and crabs.
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Video courtesy of NOAA Ocean Exploration, Windows to the Deep 2019.