Scientists have detected a 'great swarm' of earthquakes off the coast of Washington clocking as many as 200 in a single hour during one day.
Geologists at the University of Washington said the quakes could lead to the Juan de Ruca Ridge erupting within a few weeks or years - but the effects are believed to be mild and not likely impact anyone on land.
The underwater volcano sits more than 16,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean and about 150 miles off the coast of Washington.
With more than a thousand tiny quakes detected in one day, this is the most activity detected at the site since 2005 - and researchers said the volcano could soon erupt.
The team said data collected when the volcano erupts could reveal how Earth's crust formed over time by cooled magma - but noted that could happen in a few weeks of few years from now.
On March 6, the group's real-time monitoring network detected the earthquakes, which registered a 4.1 magnitude - relatively mild compared to famous damaging quakes like the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 which registered a 7.9 magnitude.
That quake and the city-leveling fires it touched off killed about 3,000 people.
The 'great swarm' of earthquakes followed multiple days of increasingly frequent quakes, according to Ocean Networks Canada (ONC), which is collecting the data for researchers to study
The spike indicated a possible 'impending magmatic rupture,' the research group reported.
A magmatic rupture, which occurs when the Earth's crust splits open for some reason and spills molten rock out, is a natural phenomena that can form new ocean floor, according to Zoe Krauss, a marine seismology PhD candidate at the University of Washington.
In the case of the Juan de Fuca Ridge, this rupture will be the result of two plates pulling apart from one another, opening a giant crack for magma to flow out at about 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
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