- Off the coast of Oregon, there's a volcano.

It's called the Axial Seamount.

This volcano happens to be really active.

Because it is so active, it tells us a lot about how volcanoes work, and it tells us a lot about volcanic risk.

I'm Jes Burns.

I'm a science producer for Oregon Field Guide, and we spent two weeks out in the ocean filming scientists studying an underwater volcano.

I didn't really know how I was going to pull this off, and luckily we had Stephani on staff who had done this a million times.

- I was a marine biologist for about 12 years.

Loved it.

I spent a lot of time in the field.

It's kind of the nexus of the two worlds that I've invested a lot of time in, science and then filmmaking.

It's definitely my sweet spot.

- People are working around the clock, and so we were on call basically for 14 days straight.

Part of my job is like figuring out what we need to be awake for is what it comes down to.

We decided the first few days it was going to be all wide shots, and that served two purposes.

One, we could just figure out what was going on, but it also just kind of kept us out of people's way.

We wanted people to get comfortable with us being there and being there all the time, I mean.

- [Jes] With the health of Jason, a remotely operated submarine, the science team is trying to figure out how to predict volcanic eruptions months or even years in advance.

- [Jes] They just put it in the water, and so it's dropping down.

- It takes time to do science.

If you get to be there for some of the moments of discovery, some of the wonder.

- Oh yeah, here's a fissure.

- [Stephani] I know we get deeper stories that way.

- So this is lava that erupted in 1998.

- [Stephani] So like what is it like to be there?

What is it like to peer over the shoulder of a scientist who's doing this very careful thing with the arms of Jason, like picking up a sample or like placing a temperature probe.

- They adjust it to within millimeters, and to me that is indicative of how painstaking they are about their work and about the trustworthiness of their work.

- That is so cool.

- You walk into the Jason VAN, and it's like walking into another world.

It's dark and it's cool and it's quiet, and there's this mechanical shutter that happens with the waves.

It's like this wah-wah-wah-wah, and it would just be the place that you would go to like at 3:00 AM if you couldn't sleep.

You'd just sit on the back wall and you'd watch.

Those moments were just really kind of the most magical for me.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - Some days it's flat and calm and other days you're just trying to focus on staying upright as you walk down the hall carrying like, for me, a camera, right?

When you are working that many days and that many hours in a row, we definitely had our grumpy moments, but you kind of got to let some things be fun.

- I don't know if I'm surviving if I get in the water.

- Jes is definitely the better ping pong player.

- Being with people that long, you actually do form relationships with them.

Barriers come down.

(laughing) - [Crew] There it is again.

Okay.

Oh my gosh.

- [Jes] One day five star whale just came up, and it triggered like pandemonium on the boat.

- [Crew] When you can hear him breathe, that's five star.

- [Jes] You saw just how huge the fin whale was.

- [Crew] Oh my God!

Wow - [Jes] Everybody just kind of had this shared sense of awe and wonder for the world.

- To want do our best for the ocean and to not take it for granted, you also have to see these moments of joy, so I know that's an important part to share.

(gentle music) The most challenging drone flying I have ever done is from ships.

- The drone's coming in, and it looks like the drone is going vrrrm, vrrrm, like an eight foot swing.

I was like, "Stephani, keep it level," and she'd be like it, "It is level.

We're not level."

And so she had to time it, and I'd have to try to grab it.

And, occasionally, I'd miss.

Got my first drone casualty.

Never miscalculated it again.

I got really good at catching that drone.

- [Stephani] I love having the chance to tell a rich science story.

- Ready to come up.

Like walking a dog, like a really big dog.

- [Stephani] That other people get to see what it was like and get to feel and get to experience it.

- With Oregon Field Guide, you get information, you get context, and you get people, you get humanity.

- [Crew] Woo, fur seal.

- To understand people who have experiences that are different from you, which is just super valuable right now.

It's a gift to the region, and it's a gift being able to work on it.

(gentle music) (no audio) (no audio) - Great people just doing their thing in their own northwesty way.

We love bringing you stories like this.

Support what you love.

opb.org/video.