Seafloor deformation and forecasts of the April 2011 eruption at Axial Seamount

Axial Seamount is an active submarine volcano located at the intersection between the Cobb hotspot and the Juan de Fuca spreading centre in the northeast Pacific Ocean1, 2. The volcano has been closely monitored since it erupted in 1998 (refs 3, 4). Since then, Axial Seamount seemed to exhibit a similar inflation–deflation cycle to basaltic volcanoes on land and, on that basis, was expected to erupt again sometime before 2014 or 2020 (refs 5, 6). In April 2011 Axial Seamount erupted. Here we report continuous measurements of ocean bottom pressure that document the deflation–inflation cycle of Axial Seamount between 1998 and 2011. We find that the volcano inflation rate, caused by the intrusion of magma, gradually increased in the months leading up to the 2011 eruption. Sudden uplift occurred 40–55 min before the eruption onset, which we interpret as a precursor event. Based on our measurements of ground deformation through the entire eruption cycle at Axial Seamount, we suggest that another eruption could occur as early as 2018. We propose that the long-term eruptive cycle of Axial Seamount could be more predictable compared with its subaerial counterparts because the volcano receives a relatively steady supply of magma through the Cobb hotspot and because it is located on thin oceanic crust at a spreading plate boundary

Seismic precursors and magma ascent before the April 2011 eruption at Axial Seamount

Volcanoes at spreading centres on land often exhibit seismicity and ground inflation months to years before an eruption, caused by a gradual influx of magma to the source reservoir¹⁻⁴. Deflation and seismicity can occur on time scales of hours to days, and result from the injection of magma into adjacent rift zones⁵⁻⁸. Volcanoes at submarine rift zones, such as Axial Seamount in the northeast Pacific Ocean, have exhibited similar behaviour⁹⁻¹², but a direct link between seismicity, seafloor deformation and magma intrusion has never been demonstrated. Here we present recordings from ocean-bottom hydrophones and an established array of bottom-pressure recorders that reveal patterns of both microearthquakes and seafloor deformation at Axial Seamount on the Juan de Fuca Ridge, before it erupted in April 2011. Our observations show that the rate of seismicity increased steadily during a period of several years, leading up to an intrusion and eruption of magma that began on 6 April 2011. We also detected a sudden increase in seismo-acoustic energy about 2.6 h before the eruption began. Our data indicate that access to real-time seismic data, projected to be available in the near future, might facilitate short-term forecasting and provide sufficient lead-time to prepare in situ instrumentation before future intrusion and eruption events.Keywords: Seismology, tectonics and geodynamics, Oceanography, Volcanology, mineralogy and petrology, Structural geologyKeywords: Seismology, tectonics and geodynamics, Oceanography, Volcanology, mineralogy and petrology, Structural geolog

Coupled Growth and Division of Model Protocell Membranes

The generation of synthetic forms of cellular life requires solutions to the problem of how biological processes such as cyclic growth and division could emerge from purely physical and chemical systems. Small unilamellar fatty acid vesicles grow when fed with fatty acid micelles and can be forced to divide by extrusion, but this artificial division process results in significant loss of protocell contents during each division cycle. Here we describe a simple and efficient pathway for model protocell membrane growth and division. The growth of large multilamellar fatty acid vesicles fed with fatty acid micelles, in a solution where solute permeation across the membranes is slow, results in the transformation of initially spherical vesicles into long thread-like vesicles, a process driven by the transient imbalance between surface area and volume growth. Modest shear forces are then sufficient to cause the thread-like vesicles to divide into multiple daughter vesicles without loss of internal contents. In an environment of gentle shear, protocell growth and division are thus coupled processes. We show that model protocells can proceed through multiple cycles of reproduction. Encapsulated RNA molecules, representing a primitive genome, are distributed to the daughter vesicles. Our observations bring us closer to the laboratory synthesis of a complete protocell consisting of a self-replicating genome and a self-replicating membrane compartment. In addition, the robustness and simplicity of this pathway suggests that similar processes might have occurred under the prebiotic conditions of the early Earth.Exobiology Program (U.S.) (Grant EXB02- 0031-0018)United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Exobiology Program) (Grant EXB02-0031-0018)Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Investigator

Geochemistry of lavas from the 2005–2006 eruption at the East Pacific Rise, 9°46′N–9°56′N : implications for ridge crest plumbing and decadal changes in magma chamber compositions

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2010. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 11 (2010): Q05T09, doi:10.1029/2009GC002977.Detailed mapping, sampling, and geochemical analyses of lava flows erupted from an ∼18 km long section of the northern East Pacific Rise (EPR) from 9°46′N to 9°56′N during 2005–2006 provide unique data pertaining to the short-term thermochemical changes in a mid-ocean ridge magmatic system. The 2005–2006 lavas are typical normal mid-oceanic ridge basalt with strongly depleted incompatible trace element patterns with marked negative Sr and Eu/Eu* anomalies and are slightly more evolved than lavas erupted in 1991–1992 at the same location on the EPR. Spatial geochemical differences show that lavas from the northern and southern limits of the 2005–2006 eruption are more evolved than those erupted in the central portion of the fissure system. Similar spatial patterns observed in 1991–1992 lavas suggest geochemical gradients are preserved over decadal time scales. Products of northern axial and off-axis fissure eruptions are consistent with the eruption of cooler, more fractionated lavas that also record a parental melt component not observed in the main suite of 2005–2006 lavas. Radiogenic isotopic ratios for 2005–2006 lavas fall within larger isotopic fields defined for young axial lavas from 9°N to 10°N EPR, including those from the 1991–1992 eruption. Geochemical data from the 2005–2006 eruption are consistent with an invariable mantle source over the spatial extent of the eruption and petrogenetic processes (e.g., fractional crystallization and magma mixing) operating within the crystal mush zone and axial magma chamber (AMC) before and during the 13 year repose period. Geochemical modeling suggests that the 2005–2006 lavas represent differentiated residual liquids from the 1991–1992 eruption that were modified by melts added from deeper within the crust and that the eruption was not initiated by the injection of hotter, more primitive basalt directly into the AMC. Rather, the eruption was driven by AMC pressurization from persistent or episodic addition of more evolved magma from the crystal mush zone into the overlying subridge AMC during the period between the two eruptions. Heat balance calculations of a hydrothermally cooled AMC support this model and show that continual addition of melt from the mush zone was required to maintain a sizable AMC over this time interval.This work has been supported by NSF grants OCE‐0525863 and OCE‐0732366 (D. J. Fornari and S. A. Soule), OCE‐0636469 (K. H. Rubin), and OCE‐ 0138088 (M. R. Perfit), as well as postdoctoral fellowship funds from the University of Florida

Geodetic Monitoring at Axial Seamount Since Its 2015 Eruption Reveals a Waning Magma Supply and Tightly Linked Rates of Deformation and Seismicity

Abstract Axial Seamount is a basaltic hot spot volcano with a summit caldera at a depth of ∼1,500 m below sea level, superimposed on the Juan de Fuca spreading ridge, giving it a robust and continuous magma supply. Axial erupted in 1998, 2011, and 2015, and is monitored by a cabled network of instruments including bottom pressure recorders and seismometers. Since its last eruption, Axial has re‐inflated to 85%–90% of its pre‐eruption level. During that time, we have identified eight discrete, short‐term deflation events of 1–4 cm over 1–3 weeks that occurred quasi‐periodically, about every 4–6 months between August 2016 and May 2019. During each short‐term deflation event, the rate of earthquakes dropped abruptly to low levels, and then did not return to higher levels until reinflation had resumed and returned near its previous high. The long‐term geodetic monitoring record suggests that the rate of magma supply has varied by an order of magnitude over decadal time scales. There was a surge in magma supply between 2011 and 2015, causing those two eruptions to be closely spaced in time and the supply rate has been waning since then. This waning supply has implications for eruption forecasting and the next eruption at Axial still appears to be 4–9 years away. We also show that the number of earthquakes per unit of uplift has increased exponentially with total uplift since the 2015 eruption, a pattern consistent with a mechanical model of cumulative rock damage leading to bulk failure during magma accumulation between eruptions