A new volcanic eruption is now confirmed to be taking place off the West Coast of the United States.
The new undersea volcanic activity is occurring approximately 300 miles off the shores of Central Oregon, along the Axial Seamount, where a fresh fissure has formed, producing new undersea lava flows, and seismic activity.
This undersea eruption FOLLOWS a series of earthquakes at dormant volcanoes along the West coast in California, and Nevada, as well as several large “steam plume” events from Hot Springs, Cold Springs, and dormant volcano locations.
This is on top of the other major international earthquake , and volcano activity which took place this past week.
Video covering these other new volcanic events here:
The new undersea eruption near the coast of Oregon is taking place directly between the 5.5M earthquake location from this past week (along the Northern California coast), and the 6.2M earthquake location , which occurred along the North Juan de Fuca fault near Vancouver British Columbia.
The volcanic eruption is occurring in the zone directly between the two previous larger earthquakes. The area had not seen 6.0M+ activity in a fairly long time, now followed by an eruption.
Make note in the media report below, they mention the last time something like this occurred was in 2011.
In the past several videos I’ve put out, I’ve been trying to drive home the point that we are in a similar scenario to 2011 (before the Japan large earthquake in March 2011).
Before the Japan mega-quake, there were a series of unexpected (and quite excessive) volcanic eruptions internationally (which occurred over a short period of time), multiple large repeat earthquakes, steam plumes on the West coast, Hawaii had a volcanic event at Kilauea , and the 2011 undersea eruption off the coast of Oregon.
The same thing which occurred in 2011, is occurring now in 2015.
Plumes on the West coast, an eruption off the West coast, frequent large unexpected eruptions internationally, Hawaii volcano topping out with lava, multiple large widespread earthquakes in succession of one another, and strange geologic activity like what we saw in Japan this past week, where new land rose out of the sea, and other land sank.
All these signs point towards a coming large Pacific Ocean earthquake.
In 2011, most people ignored the warning signs… even going so far as to DENY the warning signs – same thing is happening today in 2015. People did NOT learn the 2011 lesson of being prepared, and paying attention to geologic signs which show before large events occur.
I made a full report on the plume activity along the West coast over the past several days, specifically made a video on the events 2 days ago.
Now we see the plume activity is followed by a VOLCANIC ERUPTION NEARBY in Oregon.
Media report on this new event:
Undersea Volcano Appears to be Erupting off the Coast of Oregon and Washington
Thursday, 30 April 2015 10:25
“Axial Seamount, an active underwater volcano located about 300 miles off the coast of Oregon and Washington, appears to be erupting.
Two scientists, including one from OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center had forecast that such an event would take place there in 2015.
Geologists Bill Chadwick of Oregon State University and Scott Nooner of the University of North Carolina Wilmington made their forecast last September during a public lecture and followed it up with blog posts and a reiteration of their forecast just last week at a scientific workshop.
Since last Friday, the region has experienced thousands of tiny earthquakes — a sign that magma is moving toward the surface — and the seafloor dropped by 2.4 meters, or nearly eight feet, also a sign of magma being withdrawn from a reservoir beneath the summit. Instrumentation recording the activity is part of the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative. William Wilcock of the University of Washington first observed the earthquakes.
“It isn’t clear yet whether the earthquakes and deflation at Axial are related to a full-blown eruption, or if it is only a large intrusion of magma that hasn’t quite reached the surface,” said Chadwick, who works out of OSU’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and also is affiliated with NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. “There are some hints that lava did erupt, but we may not know for sure until we can get out there with a ship.”
No Threat to Coast
In any case, the researchers say, such an eruption is not a threat to coastal residents. The earthquakes at Axial Seamount are small and the seafloor movements gradual and thus cannot cause a tsunami.
“I have to say, I was having doubts about the forecast even the night before the activity started,” Chadwick admitted. “We didn’t have any real certainty that it would take place — it was more of a way to test our hypothesis that the pattern we have seen was repeatable and predictable.”
Axial Seamount provides scientists with an ideal laboratory, not only because of its close proximity to the Northwest coast, but for its unique structure.
“Because Axial is on very thin ocean crust, its ‘plumbing system’ is simpler than at most volcanoes on land that are often complicated by other factors related to having a thicker crust,” said Chadwick, who is an adjunct professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. “Thus Axial can give us insights into how volcano magma systems work — and how eruptions might be predicted.”
Last Erupted in 2011
Axial Seamount last erupted in 2011 and that event was loosely forecast by Chadwick and Nooner, who had said in 2006 that the volcano would erupt before 2014. Since the 2011 eruption, additional research led to a refined forecast that the next eruption would be in 2015 based on the fact that the rate of inflation had increased by about 400 percent since the last eruption.
“We’ve learned that the supply rate of magma has a big influence on the time between eruptions,” Nooner said. “When the magma rate was lower, it took 13 years between eruptions. But now when the magma rate is high, it took only four years.”
Chadwick and Nooner are scheduled to go back to Axial in August to gather more data, but it may be possible for other researchers to visit the seamount on an expedition as early as May. They hope to confirm the eruption and, if so, measure the volume of lava involved.
Evidence that was key to the successful forecast came in the summer of 2014 via measurements taken by colleagues Dave Caress and Dave Clague of Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and Mark Zumberge and Glenn Sasagawa of Scripps Oceanographic Institution. Those measurements showed the high rate of magma inflation was continuing.
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