NEWS

Volcano may be erupting off the Oregon/Washington coast

Henry Miller
Statesman Journal

Axial Seamount, a volcano under the Pacific Ocean about 300 miles off the Oregon coast, appears to be erupting, according to two geologists who predicted the event would happen this year.

Researchers said an eruption would not be a threat to coastal residents. The earthquakes at Axial Seamount are small, and the seafloor movements gradual and thus cannot cause a tsunami.

Bill Chadwick of Oregon State University and Scott Nooner of the University of North Carolina Wilmington first made their prediction in September.

It was based on previous research that showed how the volcano inflates and deflates like a balloon in a repeatable pattern as it responds to magma being fed into the seamount.

Since last Friday, the region has experienced thousands of tiny earthquakes – a sign that magma is moving toward the surface – and the seafloor dropped nearly 8 feet, also a sign of magma being withdrawn from a reservoir under the seamount.

William Wilcock of the University of Washington first observed the earthquakes on instruments.

Chadwick, who works out of Oregon State’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, said it isn’t clear whether there is a full-blown volcanic eruption or if it is a large movement of magma that hasn’t quite reached the sea floor.

“There are some hints that lava did erupt, but we may not know for sure until we can get out there with a ship,” he says in a press release announcing the findings.

Axial Seamount last erupted in 2011, and that event was loosely forecast by Chadwick and Nooner, who had said in 2006 that the volcano would erupt before 2014.