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Nature Geoscience 2, 370 (1 May 2009) | doi:10.1038/ngeo509

Ring of fire

What was the objective of the work? The 'Submarine Ring of Fire' programme was funded by the NOAA Ocean Exploration programme; the Mariana Volcanic Arc promised to be a fruitful target — only a few submarine volcanoes were well mapped and only a handful actually visited. Between 2003 and 2006, we mapped the arc with seafloor sonar systems and water column instrument packages.