(electronic music)
- [Scientist] You want to go for a swim?
- [ROV Pilot] Yeah, let's do it.
- [Scientist] It's a fish swimming above it.
- [ROV Pilot] Oh my goodness.
- [Navigator] Is it inside and dead, or is it right up?
- [Scientist] It's actually right above it.
- [Navigator] Oh.
- [ROV Pilot] It's swimming right along the surface.
- [Scientist 1] Wow.
- [ROV Pilot] Oh
- [Navigator] That's cool.
- [Scientist] You want to go for a swim, Greg?
- [Navigator] Sure.
(man laughs)
- [Scientist] All right, let's dunk the basket.
You're ready to scan with your mass spec?
- [ROV Pilot] Oh my God, that's awesome.
(pilot squealing)
- [Scientist] Look out.
(group yelling)
- [Scientist] There it is.
- [Group] Oh!
- [Scientist 2] Explosions.
- [ROV Pilot] Oh, and the waves are going
to propagate all along.
- [Scientist] Yep.
- [Scientist 2] That is so insane.
- [ROV Pilot] Look at it flow along the top.
- [Scientist 2] That's so crazy.
- [Scientist] There's a wave.
You see the wave?
- [Group] Whoa, so cool!
- [ROV Pilot] Wave propagation in ultra slow motion.
- [Scientist 2] Oh my gosh.
- [ROV Pilot] Rivers under water are awesome.
- [Navigator] How are we doing, Charles?
There we go.
- [Scientist] Oh look, there's out
cropping gas hydrate over there.
- [Scientist 3] Yep, you got sulfide too, yep.
- [Scientist] You got sulfide too?
- [Scientist 3] Yup.
- [Scientist] You can see it.
The river flowing down towards this.
- [Navigator] Well, when we're ready, I will dry off.
(group laughs)
- [Scientist] I want to go see that yellow rock over there.
Are you good, Charles?
- [Scientist 3] Yep, I'm good.
- [Scientist] Yeah, let's go over there.
- [Navigator] All right.
- [ROV Pilot] Really salty is probably
not the best for instrumentation.
- [Scientist 1] Whoa!
- [Scientist] Uh oh!
- [Scientist 1] Oh!
- [Scientist] There it goes!
- [Scientist 1] Ah!
- [Navigator] Like brine and sediment.
- [Scientist] Yep.
- [ROV Pilot] Look at the density differences.
Looking at it travel underneath and on top.
- [Group] Whoa.
- [ROV Pilot] This is very very similar
to pyroclastic flows.
(group laughs)
- [Scientist] Really?
- [ROV Pilot] From going from the air into the water.
- [Scientist] Oh, cool.
- [Navigator] I knew you were waiting
for your vulcanism window.
(man laughs)
- [ROV Pilot] The difference in the flow raise
is really wild.
- [Scientist] Here comes the wave up on the shore.
- [Scientist 1] It's a tsunami!
Ah!
(group laughs)
This is awesome!
- [Scientist 2] Best shift ever.
(group laughs)
- [Scientist] That's just a strange carbonate.
It's not hydrate.
- [Navigator] Again, nice wave break around it.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
All right, let's come full wide.
- [Scientist 2] Okay, going wide.
- [Scientist] So, underneath the Gulf of Mexico,
when it first formed, as the Atlantic was first forming,
when the continents split apart and the Gulf opened up,
and filled with seawater and then closed off
and became basically a big evaporate basin
and all of the water evaporated out
and left all the salt behind.
And then when it finally filled up,
this was around the same time
as the Rocky Mountains were starting to lift
and all the sediment that was washing off
of the mountains as they were forming.
And most of it ended up in the Gulf of Mexico.
And all that sediment loading on the upper part
of the slope started to push down on the salt.
And the salt starts to deform.
It basically bends.
Oh, whoa, go up to the top of that.
- [Navigator] Yep, I saw that.
- [Scientist] So anyway, there's tons of salt
underneath the Northern Gulf of Mexico
and then all that sediment loading crushed it.
And it's very slowly moving out.
- [Scientist 3] Ah, that ship moved .
- [Scientist] Whoa, look at that.
- [ROV Pilot] It is like an infinity pool.
- [Scientist 3] Ah, ship moved.
- [ROV Pilot] They just finished it.
Do you want another one?
- [Scientist] It is like an infinity pool.
- [Navigator] Ah, we should swing a little bit.
- [Scientist] Look at that.
There's a lip.
That's brine right above us.
And it's just starting to come down the slope.
You know what those actually, could you go for a quick zoom?
- [Scientist 2] Yeah, can I zoom in here?
- [Scientist] Yeah, crystals there.
They're barite.
It's barium sulfate.
- [Group] Wow!
- [Scientist] I've seen this in other brine pools.
Also, you can see, look at the waves.
- [Navigator] Look at the shimmer.
- [ROV Pilot] Oh, look at the waves!
- [Group] Whoa!
- [Scientist] That's awesome.
There's our thrusters causing a little bit
of the wave in there.
- [Scientist 3] They're all in their own different levels.
- [Scientist 1] Crabs hanging out.
- [Scientist 3] It's water Yellowstone.
- [Scientist] Yeah, it's very similar to that.
Different process.
It's not hot.
But lots of different types of minerals and bacteria
forming all these different colors.
- [ROV Pilot] It's so clear.
- [Scientist 1] Zooming in on mussel island.
- [Scientist] Mussel beach. (laughs)
There you go.
- [ROV Pilot] Sure is.
- [Scientist 1] Whoa.
Those are some opportunistic suckers down there.
(group laughs)
- [Navigator] That is risky.
- [Scientist 1] There's little ones.
- [Scientist] Yeah, really tiny ones.
- [ROV Pilot] Looks like some
of them fallen in over the years.
- [Scientist] Yeah.
- [Navigator] But the reason for some of them falling in
as new ones grow, do they inadvertently push some
of the more established ones out of the way and in?
- [Scientist] Possibly.
- [ROV Pilot] Crazy.
- [Scientist] Then just get too big and fall off.
All right.
Should we keep going up?
- [Navigator] Yeah.
- [Scientist] What's next?