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Just 3 ½ hours after lowering the Medea video camera down to the seafloor, we come across the first black smoker ever to be found on the Galapagos Spreading Center! We name this smoker "Plumeria" (after the tropical flower by that name), and continue our search along and near the axial fissure. Soon we come upon the cluster of at least six 12-14 m high chimneys pouring out massive quantities of black smoke, shown in the video above. We name these smokers the "Iguanas" vents, after the famous marine iguanas of the Galapagos Islands. Image courtesy of UCSB, Univ. S. Carolina, NOAA, WHOI.
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