Axial Seamount Lecture

Axial Seamount. | Photo courtesy of Axial NOVAE

The World of Haystack Rock series is offered on the second Wednesday of each month from November through April, with each presentation taking place at 7 p.m. in the Cannon Beach Library.  The Friends of Haystack Rock group which sponsors the series supports Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock Awareness Program.

The lecture on March 14th is entitled, "Axial Seamount: The Most Active Volcano in the Pacific Northwest." This talk will be delivered by Dr. Bill Chadwick, a reserach professor at Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center. 

Axial Seamount is the most active submarine volcano in the NE Pacific. It rises to a depth of 1400 m below sea level and is located approximately 300 miles off the coast of Oregon. Axial Seamount was the site of the world’s first underwater volcano observatory called NeMO and has erupted most recently in 2015, 2011 and 1998. Because it is so active, Axial has been chosen as a key node on the new cabled observatory, which is part of the National Science Foundation’s Ocean Observatory Initiative (OOI) 

Information on Bill Chadwick:

Dr. Bill Chadwick is a Research Professor at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, and is acting-head of Earth-Ocean Interactions Program at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.  He became interested in studying volcanoes when he was in college and Mount St. Helens erupted.  He majored in geology at Colorado College, where he received his B.A.  After college, he worked at Mount St. Helens with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), got a PhD in Geology at University of California at Santa Barbara, did a post-doc with the USGS in Menlo Park studying Galapagos volcanoes, and has worked at Oregon State University since 1989 mainly studying submarine volcanoes.  His current research interests include investigating how magma is supplied and stored at active volcanoes, how lava is emplaced during submarine eruptions, and how underwater eruptions affect the chemistry and ecosystems of hydrothermal vent sites.   

For more information about the event or the Friends of Haystack Rock, contact Tiffany Boothe, (503) 738-6211, seasideaquarium@gmail.com.