Gas-rich submarine exhalations during the 1989 eruption of Macdonald Seamount

In January 1989 we observed submarine eruptions on the summit of Macdonald volcano during a French-German diving programme with the IFREMER submersible Cyana. Gas-streaming of large amounts of CH4, CO2 and SO2 from summit vents, inferred from water column anomalies and observed by submersible, was accompanied on the sea surface by steam bursts, turbulence, red-glowing gases, and black bubbles comprising volcanic ash, sulphur and sulphides. Chloride depletion of water sampled on the floor of an actively degassing summit crater suggests either boiling and phase separation or additions of magmatic water vapour. Submersible observations, in-situ sampling and shipboard geophysical and hydrographic measurements show that the hydrothermal system of this hotspot volcano is distinguished by the influence of magmatic gases released from its shallow summit.