Summary: After all the months of preparation, the extremely exciting Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 (SRoF'06) expedition on the research vessel (R/V) Melville with the Jason II remotely operated vehicle (ROV), the hectic follow-up period of responding to the media requests for stories on the eruption — we can now reflect on this rich experience. When we departed Guam on April 18, we had high expectations, but I don't think any one of us suspected the full magnitude of the discoveries we were about to make. We really pushed the envelope of exploration on one of Earth's most extreme environments: the shallow submarine volcanoes of the Mariana arc.
