Underwater volcano off Oregon coast could erupt any day, scientists say

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The Axial Seamount is the most active volcano in the Pacific Northwest, sitting 300 miles off the coast of Oregon and nearly a mile underwater in the Pacific Ocean, along the Juan de Fuca Ridge.

Scientists who are monitoring the volcano have said that an eruption is due before the end of 2025.

The Axial Seamount last erupted in 2015, and before that it had eruptions in 2011 and 1998.

Oregon State University geophysicist William Chadwick said, “at the rate of inflation it’s going, I expect it to erupt by the end of the year.”

The volcano has been chosen as the site of the world’s first underwater volcano observatory and is being closely monitored by scientists at Oregon State University, as well as the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.

In June, this year, scientists detected over 2,000 earthquakes in a single day at the volcano.

Since then, the surge has tapered off, but hundreds of earthquakes continue to be recorded at the site daily and the seafloor has ballooned to a similar level to the 2015 eruption.

Seismic activity and the bulging ocean floor are a sign that magma is moving up through cracks underneath the volcano.

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In a recent blog post by Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences scientists noted the rate of earthquakes has been “wavering up and down” but admitted they don’t know “what it will take to trigger the next eruption and exactly when that will happen.”

Chadwick said when the submarine volcano erupts it won’t be explosive, and therefore doesn’t pose a tsunami risk and will have no effect on human life on the West Coast.

Instead, the volcano is more like volcanoes in Hawaii and Iceland, with less gas. The lava is very fluid and oozes out steadily during an eruption.

During an eruption, the lava will flow out of the volcano and almost immediately cool down when it hits the seawater, forming a crust.

Sea life on the ocean floor near the volcano can be die if it’s buried by the lava. But scientists say the eruption most likely won’t affect animals like whales because they don’t swim nearly deep enough.