No latest activity reported for Axial Seamount.

Below is a summary of eruption dates and Volcanic Explosivity Indices (VEI).

The following references are the sources used for data regarding this volcano. References are linked directly to our volcano data file. Discussion of another volcano or eruption (sometimes far from the one that is the subject of the manuscript) may produce a citation that is not at all apparent from the title. Additional discussion of data sources can be found under Volcano Data Criteria.

Carbotte S M, Detrick R S, Harding A, Canales J P, Babcock J, Kent G, Van Ark E, Nedimovic M, Diebold J, 2006. Rift topography linked to magmatism at the intermediate spreading Juan de Fuca Ridge. {Geology}, 34: 299-212

Dziak R P, Fox C G, 1999. The January 1998 earthquake swarm at Axial volcano, Juan de Fuca Ridge: hydroacoustic evidence of seafloor volcanic activity. {Geophys Res Lett}, 26: 3429-3432

Embley R W, Chadwick W W Jr, Clague D, Stakes D, 1999. 1998 eruptions of Axial volcano: multibeam anomalies and sea-floor observations. {Geophys Res Lett}, 26: 3425-3428

Embley R W, Murphy K M, Fox C G, 1990. High-resolution studies of the summit of Axial volcano. {J Geophys Res}, 95: 12,785-12,812

Rhodes J M, Morgan C, Liias R A, 1990. Geochemistry of Axial Seamount lavas: magmatic relationship between Cobb Hotspot and the Juan de Fuca Ridge. {J Geophys Res}, 95: 12,713-12,733

Smithsonian Institution-GVN, 1990-. [Monthly event reports]. {Bull Global Volc Network}, v 15-33

Axial Seamount rises 700 m above the mean level of the central Juan de Fuca Ridge crest about 480 km west of Cannon Beach, Oregon to within about 1400 m of the sea surface. The volcano is the most magmatically robust and seismically active site on the Juan de Fuca Ridge between the Blanco Fracture Zone and the Cobb offset. The summit is marked by an unusual rectangular-shaped caldera (3 x 8 km) that lies between two rift zones. The caldera is breached to the SE and is defined on three sides by boundary faults of up to 150 m relief. Hydrothermal vents colonized with biological communities are located near the caldera fault or along the rift zones. Following the discovery of hydrothermal venting north of the caldera in 1983, a concentrated mapping and sampling effort was made in the mid-late 1980s. An eruption was detected seismically in January 1998; later mapping revealed a lava flow erupted from a 9-km-long fissure at the southern end of Axial caldera. The new lava flows were seen to partially bury a seismometer/ pressure gauge and mooring line deployed in 1997.