HONOLULU — A volcano might be erupting deep beneath the Pacific Ocean within the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, however scientists don’t know for positive as a result of it’s so inaccessible.
All indications are that the Ahyi Seamount started erupting in mid-October, the U.S. Geological Survey stated Monday. The Northern Marianas are about 3,800 miles west of Honolulu.
Scientists wish to see if the exercise is shallow earthquakes or if materials exploded from the crater, stated Matt Haney, a USGS analysis geophysicist. Scientists are checking satellite tv for pc information to see if there’s discolored water, which might counsel materials is popping out of the volcano, he stated.
“There’s nothing proper now that means that this eruption will intensify and develop into a big eruption,” Haney stated.
Nonetheless, mariners would wish to keep away from the fast space, he stated.
Exercise from an undersea volcanic supply was picked up final month by hydroacoustic sensors some 1,400 miles away at Wake Island.
With assist from the the Laboratoire de Geophysique in Tahiti and information from seismic stations in Guam and Japan, scientists analyzed the indicators to find out the supply of the exercise was in all probability Ahyi Seamount, the USGS stated in a press release.
Exercise has been declining in latest days, the assertion stated.
Ahyi seamount is a big conical submarine volcano. Its highest level is 259 ft under the floor of the ocean. It’s situated about 11 miles southeast of the island of Farallon de Pajaros, also referred to as Uracas.
“There are not any native monitoring stations close to Ahyi Seamount, which limits our capability to detect and characterize volcanic unrest there,” the company stated. “We’ll proceed to watch obtainable distant hydrophonic, seismic, and satellite tv for pc information carefully.”
The seamount is a part of the Mariana Volcanic Arc, which is a series of greater than 60 energetic volcanoes stretching over 600 miles west of and parallel to the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest level.
