Undersea Volcano Erupting

Off Oregon Coast

A volcano 300 miles offshore Oregon’s coast has been spewing fresh lava for the last week. Scientists predicted the volcano last fall, and have been closely monitoring the eruption since it began. According to Oregon State University geologist Bill Chadwick on 1 May, the volcano has been nicknamed “Axial Seamount”, after its location on the axis of an underwater mountain ridge. Scientists are aware of only two previous eruptions from this site. Those eruptions, in 1998 and 2011, were discovered months or years after taking place.

Researchers connected monitoring gear to an undersea cable, allowing them for the first time to gather live data on the volcano. Axial Seamount peaks at 4,900 feet below the ocean surface. The cable allows for research to happen in real time, and provides scientists more sensors and monitoring instruments than in the past. Before the cable, researchers relied on battery powered monitoring stations. However, they could only analyze the data captured by the monitoring stations by retrieving the devices, which did not allow for real-time data

Pressure sensors from the new cable systems were able to detect the eruption beginning on 23 April. Over 8,000 tiny earthquakes happened over 24 hours on that day. When sensors detected the seafloor dropping, scientists interpreted this as a sign that magma was erupting. The seafloor dropped a total of 8 feet in the past week. As of Friday, 1 May, the volcano was still spewing magma, though the eruption had slowed.