Important Takeaways:

• Axial Seamount, a massive underwater volcano located nearly 300 miles off the Oregon coast, is showing signs of an imminent eruption.
• This 3,600-foot-tall volcano, which spans 1.25 miles across and sits 4,626 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean’s surface, is currently experiencing significant swelling and rumbling, indicating a buildup of magma.
• Volcanologists predict an eruption before the end of 2025, but despite its activity, scientists remain unconcerned.
• Situated along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a chain of undersea volcanoes extending between Oregon and Alaska, Axial Seamount is a young shield volcano – a broader volcano with a low profile.
• Its resemblance to Mauna Loa, Earth’s largest active volcano, and the typical non-explosive nature of shield volcano eruptions, lessens the concern among volcanologists about the imminent eruption.
• ‘When Axial Seamount erupts, it’ll look a lot like a Hawaiian lava flow eruption,’ he said. ‘It’s not an explosive eruption, but calm effusions of lava flowing out of the caldera and across the seafloor.’
• Although shield volcanoes are not typically associated with explosive eruptions, their flowing lava can still cause substantial destruction.
• However, Axial Seamount, residing thousands of feet beneath the Pacific Ocean surface, is underneath an immense amount of pressure by the water column above it.
• ‘Deep submarine eruptions are inhibited by the tremendous water pressure of the ocean,’ Poland told Cowboy State Daily.
• ‘Even explosive eruptions struggle against the ocean.’

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