Three hundred miles off the Oregon coast and 4,900 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean, Axial Seamount—one of the Pacific Northwest's most active submarine volcanos—is showing signs of eruption.

Last active in 2015, scientists now believe the seafloor volcano could erupt before the end of 2025.

Why It Matters

Though perhaps not well known to the general public, Axial Seamount is considered a key window into Earth's geology.

Axial is significant because it sits atop the Juan de Fuca Ridge, the region where the enormous Pacific and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates pull apart, forming the ocean crust.

"Over two-thirds of the Earth's surface was formed by volcanic eruptions at these mid-ocean ridges," according to Maya Tolstoy, marine geophysicist and Maggie Walker, dean of the University of Washi

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