3D image of Axial Seamount bathymetry. Photo: Oregon State University
An underwater volcano off the coast of Oregon could erupt imminently. The Axial Seamount is an underwater volcano located about 300 miles off the coast and 4,900 feet underwater. According to researchers at Oregon State University, it has been displaying behavior consistent with an imminent eruption.
Predictions that the volcano could go off this year began in January. Oregon State University associate researcher William Chadwick told ABC that accumulated molten rock has been inflating the volcano “like a balloon,” which some researchers hypothesize could be an indicator of an imminent eruption. Since then, seismic activity has also been ramping up in the area – another telltale sign. In June, there were over 2,000 earthquakes near the volcano on one day, although that number fell precipitously soon after.
According to Oregon State University, the Axial Seamount is known for being the most active submarine volcano in the Northeast Pacific, with known eruptions in 1998, 2011, and 2015. For this reason, it was chosen as the site of the world’s first underwater volcano observatory.
“Miles of fiber optic cable are providing power and internet to instruments on the seafloor that allow us to monitor not just the seismic activity at Axial Seamount— which can help us better understand and predict how deep sea volcanoes work— but also how life on the seafloor responds to eruptions and perturbations in general,” Rika Anderson, associate professor and department chair of biology at Carleton College in Minnesota, explained to ABC News.
Luckily, the volcano doesn’t pose any threat to humans, even if it does go off. “If you were on top of it on a boat, you would never know it,” Chadwick told OPB in 2019.
