The high definition camera is a SubC 1Cam video camera adapted for use on the OOI cabled observatory by Cabled Array engineers at the University of Washington’s Applied Physics Laboratory. An ~ 4 km extension cable runs from the camera at the ASHES vent field on Axial Seamount to Primary Node PN3B, and from there it is streamed at the speed of light over 521 km of backbone submarine fiber optic cable to the shore station in Pacific City, OR.

The camera includes pan, tilt and zoom capabilities and transmits an uncompressed video stream at 1.5 Gbs in real-time to shore at a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, 60 frames per second, interlaced. The shorthand notation for this mode is 1080i60.

SubC Aquorea LED’s lights provide ~4800 Lumens each, more than enough to light up the actively venting hydrothermal chimney called Mushroom. The lights are typically run at 75% and are controllable to any level using serial communications.

The camera assembly hosts a ROS PT-25 rotator with a mechanical assembly on top and a light bar that holds the camera and attitude sensor directly above the pan/tilt and lights that are located feet apart from each other on either side of the light bar.

HD video is being utilized to examine the evolution of the metal sulfide chimney over time and the flow of fluids out of the chimney. Time-series imagery is utilized to examine animal behavior and changes in animal and microbial colonization associated with changes in fluid flow, temperature and chemistry in response to seismic and volcanic events.

(text and images courtesy of Interactive Oceans)

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The HD camera (orange triangular frame) images the 14 ft-tall actively venting hot spring deposit ‘Mushroom’ located within the caldera for Axial Seamount. The vent rests on an old lava flow. Radiating cracks in the flow are filled with white bacterial mats and small tube worms, marking sites of diffusely flowing fluids that issue from the fractures in the basalt. The 3-D temperature array in the background encloses a tube worm bush, sending 24 temperature measurements live to shore every second. Photo Credit: NSF-OOI/UW/CSSF; Dive R1730; V14