Welcome to another
Vulcan's View, where we get a look at the panoply of volcanic activity as captured by our eyes in the sky. As always, if you want to see all the activity from this week, check out the latest Smithsonian Institute/USGS Global Volcanism Program
Weekly Volcanic Activity Report. Special thanks to the
NASA Earth Observatory for many of the images here!
Axial Seamount, off of Oregon
There was a lot of news of the last couple weeks about the
prediction for the next eruption of Axial Seamount. The undersea volcano is wired with sensors, so changes in seismicity (via hydrophones) and changes to the seafloor (measured sometimes by repeated sonar surveys or submersibles - see above) can be used to assess the state of the volcano. Research at Axial suggests that the current deformation of the seafloor means an eruption should happen
as soon as 2014. In the short term, they found that seismicity at the volcano sharply increased within 3 hours of the
volcano's 2011 eruption - something happens at the terrestrial brethren of Axial. We probably know more about
Axial Seamount than any other submarine volcano, so the information gleaned from this volcano can help us understand how some of the other thousands of submarine volcanoes might behave before an eruption.
Image: An exaggerated bathymetry map of Axial Seamount. Image courtesy of NOAA.
