Underwater volcanoes near the Oregon coast are likely to erupt in the second half of this year, scientists say.
The volcano, known as the Axial Sea Mountain, is more than 4,900 feet below the Pacific Ocean and 300 miles from the Oregon coast, but it shows signs of an eruption very quickly since 2015.
The University of Washington School of Environment said in an April blog post that the volcano was formed by a hot spot on Earth. As the crust moves across the top of the mantle, the hot spots remain as they are, resulting in long chains of volcanic over time.
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From the Oregon coast to the top of the axial mountain range 300 miles offshore, the regional wired array spans the entire Juan Defoca tectonic plate. (via the University of Washington Ocean Observation Program)
"More than two-thirds of the Earth's surface is formed by volcanic eruptions," said Maya Tolstoy, a marine geophysicist and dean of the university's School of Environment. "Axial sea mountains are the direct result of these fundamental processes that continue to shape our planet."
Scientists say an eruption does not pose a danger.
"The axial sea mountain is too deep, far away from the coast, that people on land will even notice when they erupt. The axial sea mountain erupts have nothing to do with seismic activity on land, so people in the Northwest Pacific Northwest don't have to worry about this event triggering a major earthquake or Tsunami."
The postal notes that the first sign of a volcanic eruption will be a sharp increase in the number of surrounding earthquakes.
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Microorganisms and their wastes were sent out from a "snow blower" on the axial sea mountain three months after the outbreak in 2011. (via the University of Washington Ocean Observation Initiative)
"Volcanoes have surpassed the inflation we observed in 2015, but seismic activity is still low," said Deborah Kelley, professor at UW Oceanography and director of regional wired arrays. "We see 200 to 300 earthquakes a day, with about 1,000 peaks a day due to tides. If what we learned in 2015 is correct, I would like to see more than 2,000 per day in the months before the eruption."
The postal states that earthquakes will be caused by magma moving toward the surface.
Seismic activity at the peak of axial altitude is at low tides. (via the University of Washington Ocean Observation Initiative)
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"That period lasted about an hour, and then the magma reached the ground," said William Wilcock, a professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Oceanography. "The lava flows across the craters, and the lava-filled cracks open north or south, reaching 40 kilometers (about 25 miles).
“The seismic activity disappeared quickly in the next few days, but the eruption will continue slowly for about a month.”