May 10, 2025 01:02 AM
https://interestingengineering.com/scien...erupt-soon
EXCERPTS: Deep below the Pacific, a restless seafloor volcano off Oregon is showing signs it may soon stir again. Axial Seamount, a submarine volcano located nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface, is flexing its geologic muscles.
Perched on a hot spot along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the Pacific and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart, the volcano is steadily inflating with magma, increasing the frequency of small earthquakes.
Researchers with the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative, which operates the Regional Cabled Array at the University of Washington, say the uptick in seismic activity suggests an eruption may be near.
“At the moment, there are a couple hundred earthquakes a day, but that’s still a lot less than we saw before the previous eruption,” said William Wilcock, a marine geophysicist at the University of Washington.
While predicting the exact timing is tricky, Wilcock said an eruption could occur anytime between later this year and early 2026 — or even tomorrow.
“I would say it was going to erupt sometime later (this year) or early 2026, but it could be tomorrow, because it’s completely unpredictable.”
[...] It’s not a very explosive event. You won’t see the ash clouds above water, anything like that,” Kelly said. “It’s like if you put a mile of seawater on top of Kilauea … you may see some fountaining, but that’s it.”
Researchers said that the eruptions are most likely to occur between January and April, as previous events in 1998, 2011, and 2015 took place during this period. Scientists suspect that seasonal gravitational shifts play a role as Earth moves farther from the sun during the early months of the year... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Deep below the Pacific, a restless seafloor volcano off Oregon is showing signs it may soon stir again. Axial Seamount, a submarine volcano located nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface, is flexing its geologic muscles.
Perched on a hot spot along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the Pacific and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart, the volcano is steadily inflating with magma, increasing the frequency of small earthquakes.
Researchers with the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatories Initiative, which operates the Regional Cabled Array at the University of Washington, say the uptick in seismic activity suggests an eruption may be near.
“At the moment, there are a couple hundred earthquakes a day, but that’s still a lot less than we saw before the previous eruption,” said William Wilcock, a marine geophysicist at the University of Washington.
While predicting the exact timing is tricky, Wilcock said an eruption could occur anytime between later this year and early 2026 — or even tomorrow.
“I would say it was going to erupt sometime later (this year) or early 2026, but it could be tomorrow, because it’s completely unpredictable.”
[...] It’s not a very explosive event. You won’t see the ash clouds above water, anything like that,” Kelly said. “It’s like if you put a mile of seawater on top of Kilauea … you may see some fountaining, but that’s it.”
Researchers said that the eruptions are most likely to occur between January and April, as previous events in 1998, 2011, and 2015 took place during this period. Scientists suspect that seasonal gravitational shifts play a role as Earth moves farther from the sun during the early months of the year... (MORE - missing details)