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When Kīlauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii began spewing tons of molten lava into the ocean in May 2018, microbial oceanographers Dave Karl of the University of Hawai'i and Ricardo Letelier of Oregon State University started to wonder what effects it was having on the nearshore marine ecosystem. Certain nutrients in volcanic ash and lava are known to support phytoplankton growth, so the pair figured that new life might sprout up around Kīlauea as a result of the eruption.
Letelier, who studies marine microorganisms’ responses to environmental disturbance, is used to monitoring satellite data for patches of chlorophyll that could suggest the presence of phytoplankton. After speaking with Karl, he began pulling satellite images showing lava entering the water around Kīlauea. “Very, very soon, we started seeing the evolution of a long, long filament that seemed to be chlorophyll,” Letelier recalls.
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