Volcano Watch: Discovery of a massive submarine landslide near the 1957 Aleutian earthquake epicenter

As part of a growing national effort to understand seafloor hazards, scientists from the United States Geological Survey’s Volcano Science Center are working across agencies to investigate how submarine earthquakes, landslides, and volcanic activity shape tsunami risk — not just in Hawaii, but across the broader Pacific.

In June 2025, a multi-agency expedition led by the USGS, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Smithsonian, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, explored over 2,200 miles of the Aleutian margin aboard the Office of Naval Research’s Research Vessel Atlantis.

USGS geophysicist and oceanographer Dr. Ashton Flinders of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory led the volcano, earthquake, and landslide hazard componen