Collaborative Research: Post-eruption reinflation at Axial Seamount

University Of North Carolina At Wilmington, Wilmington NC

Investigators

Abstract

Axial Seamount is an active submarine volcano on the Juan de Fuca Ridge in the NE Pacific that erupted in 1998 and 2011, and is currently inflating in a way that suggest renewed magma injection below the seafloor. This recent activity provides access to study the dynamic interactions between seafloor volcanism, hydrothermal venting, and biological responses. Axial is the first and only site in the world where a volcanic deformation cycle has been documented on the seafloor and it will soon have operating sensors and real-time data transmission as part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI). Being able to forecast possible future magmatic activity based on recent seafloor deformation, and associated inferences on magma injection, may help guide OOI science planning. Continued monitoring of seafloor depth changes will document vertical deformation associated with magmatic inflation/deflation at Axial Seamount. A combination of Bottom Pressure Recorders, which provide continuous data, and campaign-style reoccupation of existing benchmarks will quantify behavior on timescales both long (years) and short (minutes-hrs). Two eruptions have been partially documented since 1998 but measurements of the pre-eruption inflation period are not complete. Since Axial is in what is interpreted to be the re-inflation stage now, following a 2011 eruption, the opportunity to complete characterization of the cycle exists. This geodetic fieldwork will take place in 2015 and 2017, with student participation and provision of seafloor imagery for use in Science on a Sphere exhibits.