What is the Pacific Marine and Environmental Laboratory VENTS Program?

NOAA's Pacific Marine and Environmental Laboratory PMEL VENTS Program conducts research on and utilizes its capabilities to:

  • Better understand deep-sea ecosystems supported by fluid flow from the Earth’s crust;
  • Conduct ocean basin-wide acoustic surveillance of marine mammals, seafloor eruptions, and earthquakes;
  • Discover, map and understand mineral resources;
  • characterize regional- to very large-scale ocean chemical cycles and budgets;
  • Establish deep-sea interactive observatories and associated technology development;
  • Map the seafloor at high-resolution in volcanic, earthquake, and tsunamigenic areas; and,
  • Execute its special ability to characterize extreme ecosystems.

The PMEL VENTS Program has delivered to NOAA, its partners and the Nation:

  • Discoveries, such as 14 distinct chemosynthetic ecosystems discovered over two years on the Mariana and Kermadec Arcs);
  • Characterizations of ecosystems, including corals on submarine volcanoes, and high-resolution mapping characterizations of groundfish habitats;
  • Research, development and maintenance of deep seafloor observatories, including acoustic surveillance of geophysical and biological phenomena, numerical and conceptual models;
  • Periodic surveys of lavas of known age from acoustic monitoring and subsequent in situ verification to determine colonization rates of deep-sea ecosystems and growth rates of sessile organisms (e.g. deep corals); and,
  • Peer-reviewed articles in national and international journals.

Visit the PMEL Website

PMEL Vents Program Vision & Mission:

Vision: Seafloor hydrothermal vent systems are explored and characterized globally, their impact on the global ocean ecosystem is understood, and biogeochemical products are developed for the benefit of the Nation.

Mission: To conduct research on the impacts and consequences of submarine volcanoes and hydrothermal venting on the global ocean.

Deep Sea Corals