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impact communities in the aftermath of quantities of sediment. “Approximately this volcanic eruption wasn’t predicted. volcanic eruptions, and the information half of the earth’s volcanoes are islands Understanding volcanic activity and its we gather from studying the 2008 Chai- or located near coasts, like Chaitén,” footprint on the offshore ecosystem pro- tén eruption is relevant for coastal and said Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Execu- vides data to more readily predict the island volcanoes globally.” tive Director, Dr. Jyotika Virmani. “It frequency and severity of events, which

The international team included scien- is amazing that as recently as 2008, is essential to saving lives and cultures.” tists from the United Kingdom, Chile, the United States, Italy, Malta, and New

Zealand and was co-led by Dr. Rodrigo

Fernandez of the Universidad de Chile,

Dr. Rebecca Totten of the University of

Alabama (United States), and Dr. Giulia

Matilde Ferrante of the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophys-

WORKING OFFSHORE ics (Italy). Throughout the expedition, scientists from three Chilean universities

So You Don’t Have To and the Chilean Geological Survey (SER-

NAGEOMIN) worked closely with the local Chaitén community to raise aware- ness of volcano science, geologic haz- ards, and the local marine environment.

“Communication with local communi- ties and a broader global audience was just as important as the science activities of our expedition,” said Fernandez. “Months before the expedition, we introduced the project to the local schools. On our sci- ence team, we also included a teacher,

Danny Leviñanco, who experienced the 2008 eruption from her nearby home of

Chuit Island. With her help, we conducted lessons and ship tours with almost every child in this rural, remote region.”

The scientists mapped an area of sea- ? oor approximately 2700 square ki- lometers (1042 square miles) in the

Tell us about your fjords of the Northern Patagonian Sea mission or request and collected subsea? oor data, imag- a demo.

ing meters below the sea? oor, to assess

The future of data collection is here, the build-up and movement of sediment. and it is uncrewed.

The mapping revealed a stunning, gla- cially sculpted sea? oor. Scientists have

SeaTrac’s solar-powered uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) SP-48 works long known that the area was carved by relentlessly on nearly any marine mission 24/7, in-shore or offshore, for glacial erosion but were surprised by the months at a time. No other USV is as easy to deploy and operate while magnitude of observable ice scouring. supporting so many payloads. With a low cost of ownership and right-sized

Other ? ndings include undersea mega- for transport and fleeting, SeaTrac is the industry’s ultimate USV. dunes made from volcanic sediment outside a river delta transformed by seatrac.com the Chaitén eruption. The mega-dunes

Available for purchase or lease: cover an area approximately three times [email protected] the size of New York City’s Central

Park. The scale of the dunes paired with

SP-48 USV | Data Collection | Mission Support | Sensor Integration high-resolution maps indicates a strong current system capable of moving large www.marinetechnologynews.com 11

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