US scientists said they have, for the first time, successfully predicted the eruption of one of the world’s most active undersea volcanoes off the coast of the western state of Oregon.

Scientists from Oregon and New York have been monitoring Axial Seamount, 400 kilometres out to sea, since it last erupted in 1998, and predicted it would again before 2014.

On an expedition to the area on July 29, researchers using a remotely operated robot discovered a lava flow that was not there the year before, and began noticing that the entire area looked unfamiliar.

“When we first arrived on the seafloor, we thought we were in the wrong place, because it looked so completely different,” said Bill Chadwick, an Oregon State University geologist who co-authored a 2006 study that forecast another eruption by 2014.

“We couldn’t find our markers or monitoring instruments or other distinctive features on the bottom.”