Aug. 10, 2011 A team of scientists just discovered a new
eruption of Axial Seamount, an undersea volcano located about
250 miles off the Oregon coast -- and one of the most active and
intensely studied seamounts in the world. What makes the event
so intriguing is that the scientists had forecast the eruption
starting five years ago -- the first successful forecast of an
undersea volcano. Bill Chadwick, an Oregon State University
geologist, and Scott Nooner, of Columbia University, have been
monitoring Axial Seamount for more than a decade, and in 2006
published a paper in the Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal
Research in which they forecast that Axial would erupt before
the year 2014. Their forecast was based on a series of seafloor
pressure measurements that indicated the volcano was inflating.
"Volcanoes are notoriously difficult to forecast and much less
is known about undersea volcanoes than those on land, so the
ability to monitor Axial Seamount, and determine that it was on
a path toward an impendin