Robots Reveal Giant Hidden Lava Flows Around Axial Seamount
MBARI researchers used autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to map Axial Seamount, uncovering three colossal inflated lava-flow fields on its distal rift zones—each 65–100 square kilometers in area and up to 130 meters thick, about 100 times larger than the volcano’s historical eruptions. Radiocarbon dating places the youngest field at roughly 1,259 years old and the oldest at about 25,000 years, implying caldera collapses roughly every 12,000 years. The flows formed as molten rock pooled beneath a cooling crust, swelled, and overflowed, reshaping the seafloor. Ongoing monitoring is needed to understand underwater volcanism and to refine estimates of when the next major eruption might occur (likely thousands of years away).