ASHES Virtual Site

ASHES Virtual Site

ASHES location map

The ASHES vent field is located in the SW part of Axial caldera, within about 100 m of the caldera wall. ASHES is a long-lived high-temperature hydrothermal vent site that was first discovered in 1984. Within a 100 x 100 m area there are 4 large sulfide chimneys (3-5 m high) and many smaller chimneys and areas of diffuse venting colonized by vent animals. One interesting aspect of ASHES is that the vent fluids there are hot enough to be "phase separated". This means that they actually boil beneath the seafloor, and a vapor phase becomes separated from a brine phase, each with very different chemistry. At this water depth (1540 m) the boiling temperature for seawater is 348°C. More ...

	Fly-through movie The Quicktime movie below allows you to get a virtual tour of the site by moving through it. Click the button at the lower left to play the movie. Both the fly-through movie and the panorama may take some time to load, so please be patient.		Panorama The Quicktime VR panorama below gives you a 360° view of the site. Click and drag your mouse inside the panorama window to look in different directions. The buttons in the bottom left zoom in or out and show hotlinks to video clips. Click on ROPOS to go between sites.

If you do not see two movie windows or Quicktime icons above, go to the Help page.