At 7:33 p.m. PST on July 26th, 2015, after descending ~1840 m beneath the oceans surface, the remotely operated vehicle ROPOS and the University of Washington OOI Cabled Array team set first eyes on the April 24th, 2015 voluminous eruption of Axial Seamount during the VISIONS’ 15 cruise.
On April 24th, 2015, the Axial Volcano, situated on the Juan de Fuca plate 300 miles offshore, erupted one-mile deep in the ocean and we saw it.
When an underwater volcano erupted in April off the Oregon coast, researchers knew within minutes that something spectacular was happening more than 300 miles offshore.
Warmer waters flowed to shelfbreak south of New England
A team of scientists studying last year’s eruption of Axial Seamount now says that the undersea volcano some 250 miles off the Oregon coast gave off clear signals hours before the eruption.
In the aftermath of the Great Taiheiyou, Japan, earthquake and resulting tsunami of March 11, media coverage has focused not only on the devastation but on a myriad of questions raised around the world about coastal preparedness, early warning capabilities and seismic monitoring on land and at sea.
