Poised some 300 miles off the coast of Oregon, one mile beneath the sea, yet rising 3,600 feet high, and spanning 1.2 miles across, one of the world’s most active volcanoes rests. It’s waiting, gurgling with seismic activity, preparing for a possible eruption sometime this year, according to scientists.
The Axial Seamount – the “most active submarine volcano in the NE Pacific” – is being monitored by scientists from the College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Scientists at Oregon State University. And according to them, due an increase in recent activity, a potential eruption is nigh.
But don’t start battening down the hatches and running for the hills just yet. Since the volcano – which is part of the Pacific Ocean’s “Ring of Fire,” the most volcanically active region in the world – is so far off the coast, buried deep beneath the sea, don’t expect any tsunamis or land-based earthquakes to come with the possible eruption. This volcano isn’t likely to have explode in the typical sense of the word; more likely, it will feature low speed lava flows beneath the surface.
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And recently, with scientists publishing their findings at the Axial Seamount, and anticipating a possible eruption, they’ve been dispelling misleading media coverage surrounding the event.
“Axial Seamount has been in the news a lot lately,” Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist at Oregon State University, wrote in a January 30th blog post. “What is going on?”
Chadwick continued to dispel deceptive media coverage. About one story in particular, he wrote:
“This is probably a misunderstanding of my October 26, 2024 post below in which I said Axial was still inflating and that ‘it can’t do this forever.’ But that doesn’t mean it is certain that it will erupt thisyear! This shows no understanding of what we are trying to do at Axial. It is all very uncertain, and we are experimenting to see if long-term forecasts are possible here.
“Also misleading is the image at the top of the story that shows lava exploding at the sea surface, something that will never happen at Axial. The problem with bad reporting like this is that it propagates and begets more bad stories, misinformation, and misunderstanding. Here’s hoping for better science reporting and fact checking…”
So, refraining from my own journalistic sensationalism tendencies, and simply adhering to the scientific facts, don’t fret about a looming catastrophe related to this super volcano possibly erupting. Listen to the experts. Nonetheless, it’s still pretty neat (and slightly alarming) to learn about.
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