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Asphalt on the seafloor

May 11, 2018
Asphalt flow deposits on the seafloor in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The image was taken by the diving robot  MARUM-QUEST 4000. Photo: MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen
Asphalt flow deposits on the seafloor in the southern Gulf of Mexico. The image was taken by the diving robot MARUM-QUEST 4000. Photo: MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

In a recent study in the scientific magazine Oceanography, MARUM scientists describe the fascinating similarities of natural asphalt discharge in the deep sea and lava flows on land. For this purpose, they combined images of the Chapopote asphalt volcano, which was discovered in the southern Gulf of Mexico in 2003 at a water depth of 2,900 meters, with data from the mapping of the seabed. The result is a huge and unique mosaic picture of 999 individual images covering the entire asphalt flow field of Chapopote over an area of 3,300 square meters.

The study reveals that asphalt volcanism is not a continuous process and that the asphalt deposits discharged during successive eruptive events separated by relatively long quiet periods. It also describes how cold, highly viscous asphalt can form morphological features that are strikingly similar to those formed by hot basalt lava, albeit over timescales that are orders of magnitude greater than is found in lava flows.