Underwater volcano behaviour captured by timely scientific expedition

Researchers got a rare opportunity to study an underwater volcano in the Caribbean when it erupted while they were surveying the area. The research, published today in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems , provides new insight into the little-studied world of underwater volcanoes. It investigated a volcano named Kick-'em-Jenny (KeJ), which is thought to be named after the turbulent waters nearby. The team from Imperial College London, Southampton and Liverpool universities, in collaboration with The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (SRC), were collecting ocean-bottom seismometers aboard the NERC research ship R.R.S. James Cook as part of a larger experiment when they were alerted to the volcano erupting. Our survey in April 2017 is unique in that it immediately followed an eruption. This gave us unprecedented data on what this volcanic activity actually looks like, rather than relying on interpreting seismic signals.