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A Tour of Loihi: The Summit Region

The scientific name of this curious looking fish is Sladenia remiger. It is common on the summit of Loihi.

[Click on the image to view larger]

Another view of Sladenia remiger.

[Click on the image to view larger]

       This is a 3-D bathymetric map of the southernmost 2/3 of the Loihi summit platform. Three pit craters are the most distinctive features. The southwesternmost crater is a new feature formed during the 1996 seismic event. This crater, named Pele Pit, is roughly 300m deep. It formed in a location that was previously the high-point on the summit, the old Pele's vents area of hydrothermal activity. Adjacent to the New Pit was a breccia field of both fresh and altered pillow lava fragments. Examples of each type, sampled in 1996 using the submersible Pisces V, are shown below:


Fresh

Altered

       Since the pit collapse, hydrothermal activity has resumed in the the pit, forming new chimneys of minerals built up at the places where these fluids issue onto the seafloor. Temperatures of over 200 °C have been recorded within these chimneys.


OTHER LOIHI TOUR LINKS:
[The Summit Region | The New Pit | The HUGO site | The South Rift]

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This page created and maintained by Ken Rubin©, krubin@soest.hawaii.edu
Bathymetry Images by Nathan Becker
Other credits for this web site.

Last page update on 7 Sep 1998