far out in the remote northwestern
Pacific Islands formed by an ancient

volcano rise out of this scene a very
very hard to reach its very remote it's

E 500 miles from the nearest population
center so it gets very few visitors it

was quite drastic but really when I was
really impressed

these islands of MOG and uninhabited
paradise near the northern tip of the

Mariana Islands margaritas unlike any
other place I've ever been

world you're in the middle of absolutely
nowhere and you come to what works from

a distance just like an island and then
you see that it's a big volcanic crater

essentially and you able to set sail
inside and it all of a sudden becomes

not just this big roiling Pacific but
almost this lake inside the ocean black

home very pleasant with these big walls
rising up around you and that innocent

love itself is the special music

used to be a volcano that was above the
water but there was a large eruption at

some point and the whole top of the
volcano collapsed down and it left this

ring of three islands around that have
openings big enough to drive a ship into

and it's about a mile and a half across
so it's pretty good sized caldera inside

within this caldera are unspoiled coral
reefs coral overseas investors

there's areas where almost a hundred
percent coral coverage and just filled

so coral and most pristine reefs could
imagine

but what makes these waters of
particular interest to scientists is

what else can be found beneath the
surface

you can jump in the water dive down
thirty feet and feel that the ground

there is actually hot and you've got
this hot water coming out and gas

bubbles heard someone say that it's like
diving champagne absolutely is not an

exaggeration it's pretty amazing
volcanic gases are typically dominated

by co2 so when we heard that there were
gas bubbles coming out within the coral

reef area something clicked and said hey
this is an opportunity to go look at how

organic co2 might be affecting coral
reef commuters and use it as an analog

to what's going on in the bigger ocean

the chemistry of seawater is changing
throughout the world's oceans since the

dawn of the Industrial Revolution human
activities have increased the amount of

co2 that is released into the atmosphere
the oceans naturally absorb a percentage

of atmospheric carbon dioxide every year
as the levels of co2 increase in the

atmosphere more of it will be taken up
by the oceans as well

and this causes essentially on lower pH
and a more acidic conditions so this

creates a situation where it's harder
for corals any other organism that forms

a calcium carbonate ur heart skeleton to
actually lay down those skeletons into

calcified this is known as ocean
acidification one of several effects

elevated levels of co2 is having on the
world's oceans

it's predicted to severely impact coral
reefs in the future

we could use this local volcanic
activity to stay that process in an

experiment that sort of set up by nature
forest where the volcano is putting co2

into the water and affecting the
chemistry and if conditions were right

we could possibly use that to study how
ocean acidification might affect coral

reefs in the future