The Axial Seamount, an underwater volcano 300 miles off the coast of Oregon, U.S., is stirring and will likely erupt again in 2025.
Because Axial Seamount dwells nearly 5,000 feet below the surface, its eruption will likely not impact life above. However, that doesn’t mean that life below the surface won’t be impacted.
Often, when we think of volcanic eruptions, we think of the devastation they may cause. They may destroy homes, impede air traffic, change the climate, and harm wildlife. However, certain eruptions and volcanic activity, like that from Axial Seamount, may actually benefit some marine life.
Marine Life Among Axial Seamount
Axial Seamount is a fairly active volcano. Since the volcano’s observation began in 1997, it has erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015. Axial Seamount is a hotspot volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge and has a regular supply of magma, making it a great place to study, according to Bill Chadwick, a Research Associate at Oregon State University.
Besides the important data collected from this site, the volcano is also teeming with an abundance of sea life. The magma beneath the volcano’s surface creates these thermal vents that allow life to thrive.
“There are lots of hydrothermal vents at Axial,” Chadwick says. "And that's where most of the life is around there, because, you know, at hydrothermal vents, there's this whole chemosynthetic ecosystem of animal communities.”
On the surface, most life gets its energy from the sun. However, this far beneath the ocean’s surface, organisms can’t get energy from the sun and need to rely on chemical energy that is produced from these thermal vents.
“The base of the food chain are microbes that do various kinds of chemical reactions that yield energy,” Chadwick says. “ So then other animals either are symbiotic with those microbes or they eat them.”
Read More: An Underwater Volcano Off of Oregon Coast May Erupt by End of 2025
How the Eruption Will Impact Sea Life
According to Chadwick, the types of sea life that call the volcano home include tube worms, microbes, crabs, various mollusks, sea anemones, sea stars, and octopi, among others. Around these thermal vents, these organisms thrive. However, a volcano is an unstable environment, and changes frequently. These organisms have adapted greatly to this changing environment, and can even survive within close proximity to lava flows.
”Even though the lava was really hot, there's so much cold [water],” says Chadwick. “ Literally, we've seen, you know […] like an anemone or something, right next to the edge of a lava flow, and it's perfectly fine.”
However, the eruption can still cause a shift in the habitat. As the lava begins to flow, it can cover some of these thermal vents where organisms live. The eruption can also form new thermal vents and offer a place for these organisms to repopulate.
Axial Seamount Monitoring
Axial Seamount is monitored by the Ocean Observation Initiative (OOI) Regional Cabled Array network. This organization is crucial to the monitoring and study of the volcano, and it was even in place in time to capture data from the 2015 eruption.
Through this advanced technology and research, which is funded by the National Science Foundation, experts like Chadwick can continue to monitor and study frequent volcanic activity, and the impacts it has on life, both above and below the surface. It’s a safer volcano to study because it’s so far from the coast and so far below the surface.
According to Chadwick, when it comes to Axial Seamount, there’s no need to panic.
“It's not gonna cause a tsunami, […] it's not gonna trigger a subduction earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone,” says Chadwick. “ We're studying it just because it's a great laboratory, not because there's any hazard to anybody.”
Read More: How Ancient Volcanoes Helped Create the Air We Breathe Today
Article Sources
Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:
Oregon State University. Blog to chronicle eruption forecasts at Axial Seamount
Ocean Observation Initiative (OOI) Regional Cabled Array network
A graduate of UW-Whitewater, Monica Cull wrote for several organizations, including one that focused on bees and the natural world, before coming to Discover Magazine. Her current work also appears on her travel blog and Common State Magazine. Her love of science came from watching PBS shows as a kid with her mom and spending too much time binging Doctor Who.
