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Abstract Axial Seamount in the northeast Pacific erupted in 2015, 2011, and 1998. Although monitored by the Regional Cabled Array of the Ocean Observatory Initiative, few magnetic surveys have been conducted over the region. This study uses high‐resolution magnetic data over the seamount collected by autonomous underwater vehicleSentryduring three years (2015, 2017, and 2020). The goal is to investigate whether there are temporal changes in the near‐surface magnetic field observable over the time scale of one volcanic cycle. We compare magnetic maps from repeated tracklines from each year. We find maps of the yearly difference in magnetization show coherent patterns that are not random. The central region of the caldera has become more magnetic during recent years, suggesting cooling of the surficial lava flows since 2015.Sentrydata are more sensitive to shallow crustal structure compared to sea surface data which show longer wavelength anomalies extending deeper into the crust. 

Abstract Monitoring of active volcanic systems is a challenging task due in part to the trade‐offs between collection of high‐quality data from multiple techniques and the high costs of acquiring such data. Here we show that magnetic data can be used to monitor volcanoes by producing similar data to gravimetric techniques at significantly lower cost. The premise of this technique is that magma and wall rock above the Curie temperature are magnetically “transparent,” but not stationary within the crust. Subsurface movements of magma can affect the crustal magnetic field measured at the surface. We construct highly simplified magnetic models of four volcanic systems: Mount Saint Helens (1980), Axial Seamount (2015–2020), Kīlauea (2018), and Bárðarbunga (2014). In all cases, observed or inferred changes to the magmatic system would have been detectable by modern magnetometers. Magnetic monitoring could become common practice at many volcanoes, particularly in developing nations with high volcanic risk. 

Abstract High‐temperature melting in mantle plumes produces voluminous eruptions that are often temporally coincident with mass extinctions. Paleocene Baffin Island lavas—products of early Iceland mantle plume activity—are exceptionally well characterized geochemically but have poorly constrained stratigraphy, geochronology, and eruptive tempos. To provide better geologic context, we measured seven stratigraphic sections of the volcanic deposits and collected paleomagnetic data from 38 sites in the lavas and underlying Cretaceous sediments (Quqaluit Fm.). The average paleomagnetic pole from this study does not overlap with the expected pole for a stable North American locality at 60 Ma, yet the data have sufficient dispersion to average out secular variation. After ruling out other possibilities, we find that the picrites were probably erupted during a polarity transition, over less than 5 kyr. If so, the average eruption interval was ∼67 years per flow for the thickest sequence of exposed lavas. We also calculate that the flood basalts had a minimum total volume of ∼176 km³(excluding submerged lavas in Baffin Bay). This implies a minimum eruption rate of ∼0.035 km³ yr⁻¹, which is similar to rates found in West Greenland lavas but less than rates found in larger flood basalts. Despite this, the Baffin and West Greenland lavas temporally correlate with the “End C27n event” (a period of ∼2°C global warming) and may be its underlying cause. 

Two studies, conducted 40 years apart, show how combining field observations and thermal modeling can reconstruct the history of massive lava flows and how they altered the surrounding landscape.