By Sustainability Awakening May 10, 2025
First time in ten years!
Axial Seamount lies nearly a mile beneath the Pacific, about 300 miles off Oregon. This giant shield volcano has been quietly inflating for months.
Seafloor sensors detect steady uplift—imagine the ocean floor bulging like a balloon—signaling magma accumulating in Axial’s chamber.
Researchers recorded over 1,000 small tremors daily. Each quake is a clue that pressurized magma is forcing its way upward.
In April 2015, Axial erupted, sending 450-foot-thick lava flows across the seabed. Scientists are now bracing for a repeat performance.
Intersection of the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates creates intense pressure. This tectonic tug fuels the seamount’s inflation cycle.
A network of instruments—pressure gauges, hydrophones, seismometers—provides real-time data, offering an unprecedented look at a live submarine eruption.
When magma finally breaks free, lava will ooze across the floor, reshape vents, and unleash plumes of microbes and minerals into the ocean.
Unlike coastal quakes, Axial’s remote, deep-water location and gentle flank slopes mean its eruption won’t trigger tsunamis or shore damage.
Hydrothermal vents host unique life—shrimp, tubeworms, microbes. After past eruptions, these communities bounced back within months.
Every eruption helps refine eruption forecasts. Axial is a natural laboratory for understanding volcanoes, both undersea and on land.
Eruption could come anytime before year’s end. Stay tuned as scientists await the next great undersea blaze—nature’s ultimate deep-sea show.