Something is brewing a few hundred miles off the coast of Oregon.
An underwater volcano known as Axial Seamount is showing signs that it will soon erupt, NBC News reported.
Scientists have seen telltale signs that an eruption is coming — including a growing bulge accompanied by more than 1,000 earthquakes a day, according to Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist and professor at Oregon State University.
“This volcano is similar to the ones in Hawaii that erupt very fluid lavas,” Chadwick told NBC.
“They tend to inflate like a balloon in between eruptions. At Axial, the seafloor is actually rising, and that’s a big signal.”
As alarming as all of that sounds, Chadwick said there’s no danger to people on land — or even at sea.
“There’s no explosion or anything, so it would really have no impact on people,” Chadwick said. “Even if you were out on a boat right over the seamount when it’s erupting, you probably would never know it.”
🇺🇸 BIG UNDERWATER VOLCANO MIGHT BLOW — AND NOBODY WILL NOTICE
Axial Seamount — a huge undersea volcano about a mile deep and 300 miles off Oregon’s coast — is rumbling with over 1,000 quakes a day and literally swelling like it just hit leg day.
Scientists say it’s “inflating… https://t.co/mbrNVma4Pz pic.twitter.com/6UbQWQ6MqB
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 9, 2025
The University of Washington also said residents don’t need to fear.
“An eruption at Axial Seamount also has nothing to do with seismic activity on land, so Pacific Northwesterners don’t need to worry about this event triggering a major earthquake or tsunami,” an announcement by the University of Washington’s College of the Environment said.
“That said, while most of us are happy to remain at a safe distance from volcanic eruptions, the researchers we spoke to were eager to see as much of this one as possible.”
It explained that “scientists are excited because it is giving us a window into some of the most important geological and biological processes on Earth.”
According to a blog post by Chadwick and Scott Nooner of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Axial Seamount has been declared “the most active submarine volcano in the NE Pacific, with known eruptions in 1998, 2011, and 2015.”
Because of that distinction, it is home to the world’s first underwater volcano observatory, dubbed NeMO.
Researchers at the American Geophysical Union conference announced last year that the volcano was about to explode, IFL Science reported.
It quoted Chadwick as predicting it would likely blow by the end of 2025, though the publication added that predicting a volcanic eruption more than a few hours in advance is tough to do.
When it does blow, researchers will be watching their monitoring equipment and gathering data.
“Whatever it does, we’re going to learn something new,” said William Wilcock of the University of Washington’s School of Oceanography.
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