Experts say a volcano off Oregon's coast could erupt this year

Driving the news: The seamount has erupted several times over the last three decades — in 1998, 2011 and 2015 — and each time it's done so after it inflated with magma to a certain height off the seafloor.

• "We're at the 2015 inflation threshold, we're almost fully reinflated and we're inflating again and there's lots of earthquakes," Bill Chadwick, a geology professor at Oregon State University, told The Oregonian this month. "So it's a good time to try to make another forecast window."
• That window is this year, Chadwick said.

Yes, but: Axial is not prone to large explosive eruptions like Mount St. Helens, but instead slowly seeps magma after cracks form in its surface.

• The seamount poses no risk to people or property and is far enough from the Cascadia Subduction Zone that it isn't likely to increase the likelihood of a major earthquake.

Zoom in: Given its proximity to the coast and level of activity, the seamount was picked to be the first underwater volcano observatory in the world.

• Research equipment on the seafloor near the seamount is part of a vast cable array that provides near-real-time data to Chadwick and others studying the volcano.

The big picture: Chadwick hopes that information gleaned from the next eruption will inform predictions for terrestrial volcanoes.

• "If we're successful at forecasting eruptions at Axial, then we can apply what we learn to other volcanoes around the world that are more dangerous to people and are in more complex settings," he told The Oregonian.