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A submersible robot witnessed the eruption during an underwater expedition in May near Samoa. The volcano, which was erupting with bright red magma bubbles and smoke-like clouds of sulphur, is about 1200m beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. "It was an underwater Fourth of July," said Bob Embley, a marine geologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in a news release. "Since the water pressure at that depth suppresses the violence of the volcano's explosions, we could get the underwater robot within feet of the active eruption."