New video of a spectacular underwater eruption

[shadron]

A very interesting, new video of a deep underwater volcanic eruption.

http://news.discovery.com/earth/did-noaa-see-fire-underwater.html

The story explains some of what you are seeing. Not sure I'm convinced by his explanation, hough.

 

[jasonpatterson]

Very cool video. Which part of the explanation didn't you like? It appeared to be a fireball at first to me as well, but when you look at it, you can see the bubbles forming in the lava, then when they burst, there is only a gas cloud and black chunks. I think what we're seeing is the lava bubble forming (very hot, glowing like a fire) then when it bursts, it mixes with water rapidly and cools, forming the black chunks/flakes of rock.

 

[ElMondoHummus]

Yeah, I gotta agree with jasonpatterson here. I didn't see anything that made me think it wasn't lava hitting cold water.

That looked spectacular, by the way. I'd both love and be frightened to see such an event on a larger scale. Those lava bubbles were already 3 feet wide (according to the narration), but could you imagine seeing an eruption with minisub sized bubbles? Wow. That would be an incredible site! And also, a site to be viewed from faaaaar away.

 

[Almo]

Very neato. Witnessing the slow death of our planet!

 

[shadron]

Very cool video. Which part of the explanation didn't you like? It appeared to be a fireball at first to me as well, but when you look at it, you can see the bubbles forming in the lava, then when they burst, there is only a gas cloud and black chunks. I think what we're seeing is the lava bubble forming (very hot, glowing like a fire) then when it bursts, it mixes with water rapidly and cools, forming the black chunks/flakes of rock.

It strikes me as a possible explanation that hydrogen and oxygen are being disassociated by the hot magma and the violently recombining in the bubble. But that's only a thought, and I certainly don' know much about bubble dynamics under that pressure and those temperatures.

One thing: the stuff coming out of the bubbles isn't gas; it is the same sort of sulfur clouds that come out of black smokers. Note that they don't head for the surface at the rate that a gas would; the drift slowly up as the water currents (convective, I'm sure) take then.

 

[CORed]

It strikes me as a possible explanation that hydrogen and oxygen are being disassociated by the hot magma and the violently recombining in the bubble. But that's only a thought, and I certainly don' know much about bubble dynamics under that pressure and those temperatures.

One thing: the stuff coming out of the bubbles isn't gas; it is the same sort of sulfur clouds that come out of black smokers. Note that they don't head for the surface at the rate that a gas would; the drift slowly up as the water currents (convective, I'm sure) take then.

I don't think there's any fire there. I think what looks like fire is simply magma, glowing red-orange because it's damn hot. The stuff that looks like smoke is some kind of fine particulate matter (possibly sulfur or sulfides) suspended in the water, and the black chunks are rock formed when the magma "freezes".