This thesis presents two families of novel algorithms for automated planning under uncertainty. It focuses on the domain of searching the ocean floor for hydrothermal vents, using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). This is a hard problem because the AUV’s sensors cannot directly measure the range or bearing to vents, but instead detecting the plume from a vent indicates the source vent lies...

Abstract The Iwo-yama volcano of the Kirishima Volcanic Complex in Japan had a small phreatic eruption April 2018, which newly formed multiple vents. activity was recorded by two infrasound sensors and monitoring cameras, been installed within 1 km This study identified infrasonic signals from vents cross-correlation analysis between sensors. successfully revealed main craters constrained onset...

Explosive volcanic vents are widespread on Mercury. Compound comprise multiple individual vents, and probably formed through events. We demonstrate that ~70% of the vent sites Mercury have been imaged with sufficient resolution to resolve their internal features compound undergone eruptions. Interior characteristics such as cross-cutting relationships, contrasts in small scale impact cratering,...

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents provide a chemical interface between Earth’s reducing core and its oxidizing oceans. Today these environments support diverse chemosynthetic ecosystems (1), and after being discovered, they were soon proposed as the original site for the emergence of life (2). These hypotheses have considerable appeal but have not been universally accepted, partly because many aspect...

Microbial community structures in deep-sea hydrothermal vents fields are constrained by available energy yields provided by inorganic redox reactions, which are in turn controlled by chemical composition of hydrothermal fluids. In the past two decades, geochemical and microbiological studies have been conducted in deep-sea hydrothermal vents at three geographically different areas of the Southe...

The ecology and biogeography of meiofauna at deep-sea hydrothermal vents have historically received less attention than those of megaand macrofauna. This study examines the composition of major meiofaunal taxa in beds of the mussel Bathymodiolus thermophilus at hydrothermal vents on the northern and southern East Pacific Rise (EPR) and presents the first comparison of species assemblages of the...