Cabled array at Axial seamount
On April 30, 2015, Axial seamount erupted. The good news is that this volcano is little threat to anyone. The pressure of the deep ocean above this volcano prevents any explosion from being observed on the surface. So why is this significant? The NOAA successfully predicted this eruption. This is the site of the New Millennium Observatory(NeMO), the first underwater volcano observatory, which is linked to land via a cabled array of sensors. These sensors detected significant inflation at this volcano prior to the eruption, followed by rapid deflation and a significant increase in water temperatures at the time of the eruption.
Inflation at Axial seamount… and rapid deflation!
Axial Seamount is geologically interesting, because it is caused by a hotspot beneath a ridge. This hotspot is responsible for the Cobb–Eickelberg Seamount chain, and it lies directly beneath the Juan de Fuca ridge. It is also one of the few places where a seamount or a midocean ridge is close enough to land to perform a detailed geological study with modern seismic instruments. After the last eruption in 2011, we got some interesting pictures, such as one of their instruments being buried by a lava flow. Hopefully, we will be getting more shortly!
Hydrophone buried under lava flow after 2011 eruption
Matt
Spica
Granyia
volcanohotspot.wordpress.com 
Way cool, Matt. Many thanks.
Article in Science Daily about the Deccan Traps perhaps being reawakend by the Chicxulub impact. Fun stuff. Cheers –
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150430170755.htm
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Oh, and by the way, new riddles are up!
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Lots of tremors at Bardarbunga at the moment: http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/#view=table
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Thanks Epicnova, I had nearly forgotten about it… *heading over to Iceland* 🙂
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That swarm at Bardabunga looks quite impressive on 3dBulge – they’re all in one spot, and in a short time-frame. Still fairly deep though.
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Activity at ‘interesting spots’ are queueing …
source IMO
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That’s at Askja, not Bardarbunga. Intrusion maybe?
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The Azores swarm is still going strong 24 earthquakes since midnight.
http://www.cvarg.azores.gov.pt/civisa/Paginas/homeCIVISA.aspx
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Thanks Matt
just found this article
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/0501/There-may-be-a-volcano-erupting-off-the-coast-of-Oregon-Is-it-a-threat-video
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Matt, I was meaning the pile of yellow spots East of Bardabunga crater and in line with the dyke. Those red spots at Askja have appeared more recently! Check out 3dBulge but alter the time frame slider back to 24 hours…these happened last night – 24 ‘quakes in 20 mins.
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There has been a felt earthquake in Michigan reports on EMSC by residents say its the strongest one ever felt and houses were shaking .
..After growing up in California, being in earthquakes, I knew it was an earthquake immediately. It was not surface movement as made by a truck going by, or even how thunder will shake. This was a deep bedding constant shake. I was so taken back, that after experiencing it for what seemed like 15 seconds, I jumped off the sofa. The entire house shook, not the full sways I felt in California, but intense constant movement..
Magnitude mb 4.0
Region MICHIGAN
Date time 2015-05-02 16:23:07.0 UTC
Location 42.21 N ; 85.43 W
Depth 6 km
http://www.emsc-csem.org/#2w
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Yes, that is unusual, thanks Janet! The strongest since Michigan became a state was a 4,6 in 1947 which has caused quite some damage. On the USGS earthquake site, they alwaiys give a geological summary of the region below the EQ summary:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002avh#general_summary
and here is some interesting background on Michigan EQs
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/index.php?regionID=22
It has been upgraded to M 4.2 btw.
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Just found this on the internet found it very interesting to read how the Nepal earthquake has disturbed the earths upper atmosphere.
http://www.nasa.gov/jpl/gps-data-show-how-nepal-quake-disturbed-earth-s-upper-atmosphere
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Thanks for this too! Very interesting also the ground deformation map after the EQ and the damage map in the articles further down that page.
The area around Kathmandu has moved about 1 m up, while further south the ground has sunken the same amound lower.
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Interesting two quakes in Mississippi now both at shallow depths and one person reported his whole house was shaking.
Magnitude mb 3.0
Region MISSISSIPPI
Date time 2015-05-03 01:08:35.0 UTC
Location 32.57 N ; 90.11 W
Depth 5 km
Magnitude mb 3.2
Region MISSISSIPPI
Date time 2015-05-03 00:39:23.5 UTC
Location 32.57 N ; 90.08 W
Depth 5 km
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=439841
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Now a quake at Texas at only 5 km deep that again has been felt by residents.
..rumbled, heard something shift in the attic, dog started growling & barking looking in every direction, son came from the other end of the house asking if we felt it..
Magnitude mb 3.2
Region NORTHERN TEXAS
Date time 2015-05-03 15:11:16.0 UTC
Location 32.86 N ; 96.94 W
Depth 5 km
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/Testimonies/comments.php?id=439933
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There has also been a quake 5km deep at Nevada.
Is there a fault line along the track of all these quakes?
Magnitude ML 3.5
Region NEVADA
Date time 2015-05-03 14:56:15.3 UTC
Location 38.44 N ; 118.73 W
Depth 5 km
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=439930
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As a complete novice is it not strange that all these US quakes are at 5 km depth?
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There is a fault line in the area – The New Madrid Faultline .
http://dnr.mo.gov/geology/geosrv/geores/techbulletin1.htm
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Yes, this area quakes all the time. I take it you’re new to watching quakes in the US? There are dozens of small quakes across the US every day, and that’s not counting the frequent small quakes that occur along the west coast every day. The continent is not a monolithic piece of rock. It has fractures, faults, and failed rifts all over it. These include the Reelfoot rift, the New Madrid Fault zone, the Woodstock fault near Charleston, the Saint Lawrence rift system, and the Midcontinent rift system… and that’s just in the east! Additionally, you have earthquakes from isostatic rebound after the melting of the glaciers from the ice age.
Anything under 4.0 is insignificant, unless a whole bunch are occurring in the same spot. Even then, in some more seismically active areas of the US, it’s not a big deal.
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That Nevada quake is pretty close to the Aurora-Bodie volcanic field. There was a pretty active swarm there a year or so ago, I suspect this is a continuation of that episode. At the time USGS stated it was purely tectonic in origin, no reason to suspect it’s anything other than that no.
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This one was probably caused by fracking, or injection wells for disposal of waste drilling fluid.
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There has also been a quake in Oklahoma again a 5km depth which is close to the Raton-Clayton Volcanic field.
Just curious that these quakes are all at the same depth and all near Volcanic Fields ??
Magnitude mb 3.4
Region OKLAHOMA
Date time 2015-05-04 01:30:06.7 UTC
Location 36.70 N ; 97.91 W
Depth 5 km
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=440008
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Volcanic fields all have magma doing things… Sometimes flowing into the crust, sometimes cooling and shrinking, etc. There are lots of earthquakes in volcanic systems, particularly around 4-5km in depth. Exactly why so many occur at this depth is uncertain. Water reaches something called the critical point at around 4-5km depth, which may have something to do with it.
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Hi Janet
there are also some “standard depths” for a lot of quakes typically 5 or 10 km depth. The quakes are not deemed interesting enough (because as Matt said before there are quakes all the time) so these are just processed automatically. If some scientists find a particular event interesting or relevant, then you’ll see much precise and diverse depths. There are also a lot of smallish or not so smallish quakes induced by fracking, gas injection (here was a large swarm last year in Spain or gas exploitation like in the Nederlands, you can have a look at
http://www.aardbeving-radar.nl/
you’ll see there are plenty of very small quakes. Of course some will say there was once a volcano there (around the carboniferous era I think), but it’s long extinct….
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Was there really? I thought it was only an April Fools’ joke on VC? 😀
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I read something about it very recently, I’ll check
check
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1474706515000157#
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Thanks! Read the abstract, it ends with “These results are in favor of a tidal triggering process on earthquakes when the stress in the focal area is near the critical level. [my emphasis].” I did not think this needed scientific proof., A straw will topple a cartload when its already about to fall.
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volcano, ? yes, no joke.
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So they had me doublefooled!
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There has been a 3.2 quake fairly shallow near Hamarinn
Monday 04.05.2015 08:28:39 64.498 -17.686 4.9 km 3.2 99.0 6.0 km ENE of Hamarinn
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/#view=table
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Sakurajima is on a roll today, an explosion about every hour or so. The total number is over 480 this year now. And, I wonder what this could be – a permanent hot spot on the (outside?) of the crater rim? I have watched it for half an hour now, the brightness is fluctuating somewhat but otherwise it stays there unchanged:
I just wanted to doublecheck before posting but a new explosion shrouded everything over.
http://volcams.malinpebbles.com/pubweb/Japan2.htm Live cam No. 9
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Unidentified volcanic object. “UVO”. 😊
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