HMSC Research Seminar, Nov 14, 2024

Speaker: Bill Chadwick, Senior Research Associate, CIMERS, Oregon State University
Topic: "Axial Seamount is waking up! An update on the latest monitoring data and a new eruption forecast for this submarine volcano offshore Oregon"
Axial Seamount is an active submarine volcano located ~300 miles offshore Oregon that has erupted 3 times in the last 30 years, making it the most active volcano in the Pacific Northwest. It is monitored in real-time by seafloor instruments connected to a cabled observatory. Since the most recent eruption in 2015, the rate of re-inflation and magma supply was initially high, but it gradually slowed and by the summer of 2023 it had nearly stopped, suggesting maybe the volcano was going to sleep. However, in the last year, the rate of inflation and the number of earthquakes has dramatically increased, suggesting that Axial has now re-awakened and is building to its next eruption. This talk will describe the most recent monitoring data and its implications for forecasting the next eruption.