A Picture-Perfect Volcano

The A-frame of the R/V Tangaroa frames Mount Maunganui, the dormant volcano that welcomes mariners to the port of Tauranga, New Zealand. Tauranga was the departure point for Associate Scientist Tim Shank‘s May expedition with Joint Program student Santiago Herrera to investigate biological communities on the Kermadec Arc seamounts as part of a “Deep-Sea Mining of the Kermadec Arc” program, a collaboration between Shank’s lab and the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere in New Zealand. The project aims to provide baseline data, including how the composition and distribution of chemosynthetic and non-chemosynthetic fauna vary over a range of volcano habitats, that can be used to assess and mitigate the potential environmental impacts of future seafloor mining.(Photo by Santiago Herrera, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)