The largest image captured an area of 3,300 m² with over 15 billion pixels and resolved objects at centimeter scale. Combining data from autonomous underwater vehicle mapping and remotely operated vehicle navigation with powerful optical mosaicking techniques, we assembled georeferenced images of the Chapopote asphalt flows. Aspects of asphalt flow morphology are analogous to ropy pāhoehoe flows known from eruptions of basaltic lava on land, but the timing and formation sequence of asphalt flows has been difficult to infer because limited visibility in the deep ocean makes it challenging to image large areas of the seafloor.
Subsequent exploration has expanded the known extent of asphalt volcanism across abyssal depths in much of this region.
In 2003, the Chapopote asphalt flow was discovered in the southern Gulf of Mexico at a depth of 2,900 m.
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