For a not very clear reason, or perhaps because of a certain hysteria in the media, the attention of the entire world divan-volcanological community has been riveted for several years to the caldera of the Yellowstone supervolcano, which may or may not explode, but which everyone is very closely watching.
There is also the San Andreas fault, there is the Cascadia subduction zone, from which everyone has been expecting something lately. However, in fact, there is a real erupting volcano in the United States, which is almost going to blow.
This volcano is called Axial. It is located under the waters of the Pacific Ocean on the Juan de Fuca Submarine Plateau, 480 km west of the Oregon coast and is a young volcano in the Cobb-Eickelberg Submarine Ridge.
Axial is located at a depth of 1410 meters, its height is about 700 meters. The volcano forms a 3 X 8 km rectangular caldera surrounded by rift zones. To the north of the volcano are underwater hydrothermal vents, due to the activity of which it was accidentally discovered in 1983.
This volcano is being watched and monitored by a special service, the OOI Cabled Array, which sent the research vessel Marcus G. Langseth there in the summer of 2019 to 3D scan the volcano in all its details:
However, in addition to a beautiful picture, which American volcanologists secretly enjoyed in the summer, the expedition threw all kinds of scientific sensors to the bottom, on the basis of which a forecast for the next Axial eruption was built:
Promotional video:
As follows from the analysis of this graph, published on December 5, the next Axial eruption is planned in the period 2020-2025.
In fact, Axial, of course, erupts constantly, but in 1998, 2011 and 2015, the release of volcanic gases and the rise of the bottom there sharply increased, hinting that the volcano is preparing to explode.
Fortunately, no explosions happened, but, according to calculations, the intensification of the eruption in the region of 2019 should have become critical, that is, the volcano could explode, creating a tsunami with all the ensuing consequences for the US coast:
Thus, Axial is an active volcano on the border of the Pacific Plate and the Juana de Fuca Plate. It is one of the most fully researched and monitored underwater volcanoes in the world - it is managed by a dedicated observatory. But have you seen it in the headlines? In some USGS reports? In the videos of couch volcanologists? There, services do not even show earthquakes!
On December 11, 2019, strangesounds.org asks the same questions: there is, by and large, a thermonuclear bomb with a lit fuse off the Oregon coast and it will bang at any moment, but there is not a word about it in the Seattle and California newspapers - everyone is interested only in the San Andreas.
In general, this whole dark story with Axial once again confirms that one cannot believe neither the newspapers, nor, especially, the USGS: the guys there quietly measure something to themselves, but do not report anything to anyone. Therefore, a logical question arises: what else do they measure, what do they not print much about?
As Dave Hodges writes today, there is a similar situation in Hawaii, where volcanologists also dig something, but do not report to anyone. But as a friend from the Hawaiian Volcanic Observatory whispered to Dave, everyone fears that the eruption of an underwater volcano in Hawaii will trigger a long chain that activates the Cascadia subduction zone and, possibly, will continue across America.
We do not know how much this information can be trusted, but as we have repeatedly drawn the attention of our readers - in a situation where you cannot trust anyone you need to listen to what the mystics say. Pastors and clairvoyants, of course, are not the ultimate truth, but they all say in unison that a huge wave will one day fall on America from the West, which will overwhelm even skyscrapers. Maybe it will be Hawaii, maybe it will be the same Axial - we do not know, so let's just follow the development of events.