The first post-eruption expedition was organized and conducted by on 12 February 1998, which conducted conductivity, temperature, depth, and optical casts to unusual results. In May, a dedicated bathymetric survey of the seamount showed topographical changes along the volcano's southern flank, which estimated the thickest flows to . In July DSV Alvin made several dives on the seamount's summit caldera, followed in August through September by an extensive observation and collection program using ROV ROPOS, confirming the bathymetric estimates. A sheet flow more than long and wide was produced from Axial Seamount's upper southern flank, on the site of what was formerly an active geothermal field. The southern flows were in an area marked by a difference between older sediments and newer, glassier rock, and the maximum ridge generated by the eruption, at the crest of the southern flow, was high. The total eruptive volume was roughly .