One Quick Question: What does an underwater volcano eruption mean for the Pacific Northwest?
The Axial Seamount sits about 200 miles off the coast of Oregon and is part of the Juan de Fuca mid-ocean ridge system. It’s also been pretty noisy lately, with over 1,000 tiny earthquakes happening daily as Axial nears eruption. Thankfully, scientists don’t expect any risk to humans from its eruption — but what can we expect?
We asked seismologist and Professor of Geophysics Jackie Caplan-Auerbach: How do we know Axial is about to erupt, and what should we expect to see when it does?
Jackie Caplan-Auerbach: "There are volcanic eruptions on the seafloor all the time — we just have no way of knowing it. Axial is the only undersea volcano for which we have live data. There is a cable that stretches hundreds of miles between Oregon and Axial, so when Axial acts up, we record more earthquakes, and we can see that the seafloor is inflating as magma is added to the system. Those are the primary tools that we use to forecast eruptions.
"We as residents of the Pacific Northwest should expect to see nothing when Axial erupts. Axial’s eruption will not reach the surface, it will not generate a tsunami and it will not cause large earthquakes. It will all be very subtle and it will all remain deep in the ocean.
"Scientists, however, expect to see more earthquake activity, changes to the hydrothermal vent system, lava flows on the seafloor and potentially interesting impacts to biological communities that live on Axial. For example, we might see tube worm barbeques — a term scientists used to describe the first time they saw tube worms covered in lava. Creatures that live on the seafloor can be impacted by lava, but other sea creatures thrive when sea volcanoes erupt because nutrients are released into the water, like shrimp and microorganisms. Because we haven’t been able to monitor seafloor eruptions except for a few times in history, Axial offers us a chance to study what effects these eruptions actually have on their environment."
Learn more about the Axial Seamount on the website, or if you have an interest in studying volcanoes yourself, visit the to begin your journey.
Mikayla King (‘17) covers the College of Science and Engineering and Woodring College of Education for University Communications. Reach out to her with story ideas at kingm24@wwu.edu.