The Axial Seamount, an underwater volcano about 300 miles off the coast of Oregon, has been showing signs that it might erupt. NBC News says scientists who study this volcano have identified several key signals of an impending eruption, such as an increase in seismic activity in the surrounding area and a “swelling of the structure.”
Called the “most active submarine volcano” in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, the Axial Seamount last erupted in 2015. Before that, Oregon State University says the seamount also erupted in 2011 and in 1998.
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While this news may seem menacing, people living on the Pacific Northwest coast don’t need to worry. The seamount is buried under about 4,600 feet of water, so scientists say an eruption may not even be perceptible from the surface.
“There’s no explosion or anything, so it would really have no impact on people,” Bill Chadwick, a volcanologist and research professor at Oregon State University, told NBC News. “Even if you were out on a boat right over the seamount when it’s erupting, you probably would never know it.”
However, an eruption would be interesting, especially to oceanographers and marine geologists.
Watch NBC News’ coverage of the underwater volcano that’s ready to erupt:
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