El Hierro, Canary's - Red-Alert, Eruption Underway

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APROVINCIA.ES / EFE The coast of La Restinga dawn on Thursday with a huge green spot, which has doubled in the last three hours and continues to grow. Residents of the municipality of El Pinar and other areas of the island of El Hierro have come Thursday to the highlands of La Restinga to see the spots in the sea are leaving the two foci of the volcanic eruption that occurred on Monday on the island nearest the spot, according to experts located a mile and a half of the coast , has a darker area and a tail that fishermen estimate that more than two miles to the ocean horizon. Several fishermen with Efe has spoken to have indicated that they are the currents which are extending the original spot along . One of them commented that "the monster's head," as so called probably the place where is situated one of the active nodes of the eruption, has grown since yesterday was seen by villagers, who alerted authorities thereof . The National Geographic Institute technicians confirmed yesterday, after attending a Maritime Rescue patrol the area, the spots with a strong sulfur smell could come from two active foci of eruption recorded on Monday. John, a fisherman Restinga, Efe showed concern about the effects these can have sulfur spots on the marine fauna of the area. The fishermen of La Restinga have tied the fleet since the town was evacuated Tuesday and will meet again today at City Hall El Pinar to decide what to do with boats. John explained that the boat is very small and could not move it to the port of Stake in Valverde, who is one of the options offered to fishermen.

http://www.laprovincia.es/especiales/20 ... 07660.html

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Aerial view of the spot on Thursday volcanic emissions on the coast of El Hierro.

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Data update 13/10 – 17:06 UTC : The Madrid government has reported that the situation at El Hierro is stabilized and that a decrease of the seismic signal has been recorded since this afternoon. We confirm this message (see IGN data image below). This might indeed be a good sign. Volcanologists are hoping that the released pressure will be sufficient to calm down or even stopping the volcano, enabling the evacuated people to return to their houses.





http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25 ... to-yellow/

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http://videos.laprovincia.es/nacional/2 ... 6515.shtml

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Update 13/10 – 22:41 UTC : We have seen today and yesterday a series of images from the sea, first a greenish zone which changed today into a brownish sea (latest video below).

Because of a lack of official explanation we give our friends at the Jonfr.com volcano discussion panel a chance to formulate their theory. One of the commentators gave the following plausible explanation :

“There was no eruption going on untill sometime between yesterday and today. All we have seen before that was only de-gassing.
The green patches we have seen before is absolutly not the same as the yellow gunk we are seeing today. This is pumice gunk from an eruption. I bet the eruption started at 14.27 yesterday.

Reasoning for this, yesterday at 14.00 there was no eruption (at least nothing at all visible). At 14.27 we had a huge shift in tremoring, I now interpret the decrease as pressure release. We had that enormous spike in tremoring a couple of minutes before as the magma broke through.“


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LzioTeVqGo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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Next eruption is hours away

Scientists and observers on the Canary Island of El Hierro are expecting further seismic activity and volcanic eruption over the next few hours, according to reports by experts.

After the two undewater volcanic eruptions earlier this week, the number of earthquakes that have recorded on the Island has been reduced significantly. But the concern continues because the data that predicts the occurrence of volcanic activity is not complete and likely to produce a new volcanic eruption. According to the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) the next eruption could occur on land. The question now is where the next activity will be and when

Professor Ramon Ortiz from the Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) commented yesterday that the only thing that can be said about the situation is that it will result in one of three things: the fissure which the magma will escape from will move south, to deeperwaters; that fissures will open further inland and twoards the coast of La Restinga; that new fissures could open up on the Island itself.

The count of earthquakes since the recent swarm began in July has now surpassed 10,000, and both the Canary Islands Volcano Institute and the National Geographic Institute (IGN) agree that the activity has not ended.

http://www.tumbit.com/news/articles/3942-next-eruption-on-el-hierro-hours-away.html

Thought it calmed down a bit... dont know what to think or believe right now

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Thought it calmed down a bit... dont know what to think or believe right now

Yes, don't be fooled by a temporary lull in activity. Happened last year in Iceland with Effy.

There was a lava fountain, then a few weeks of nothing, then the big explosion.

Latest spectral plot of tremor.

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>24 hs with stable amplitude tremor suggests fissure is open and degassing/emission process is steady-state

http://twitter.com/#!/pabloj_gonzalez

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Update 16/10 – 10:44 UTC : Villagers are mentioning “bubbles” coming up in the spotted area in the sea. We expect to receive fastly images from the bubbles as the many camera teams with their superior equipment will certainly be able to shoot detailed video from an event which can be seen by the naked eye.
Ramon Ortiz, a technician from the CSIC (Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) is predicting that a new island is being formed at this moment and that the chance that it will happen now is evaluated as very probable, at least of the eruption process will continue a little longer.

Update 16/10 – 11:19 UTC : Giant bubbles visible from the coast! (see also update from 10:44 UTC)

Update 16/10 – 12:39 UTC : The giant gas bubbles occur approx. every 15 minutes




[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCiPDPKleB8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

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At least two more vents have opened up on the from what I can gather on the pictures and the reports from Canary Islands. So far all the new vents are under the ocean and at depth of no less then 150 meters. So seeing them directly is quite hard for the moment. There are continues deep earthquakes under El Hierro volcano, but that suggests that new magma is flowing into El Hierro volcano.

During the weekend floating magma bombs where (or some type of magma, I do not have the exact word for it in English at the moment) floating on the ocean. But this means that at least one of the vents that started erupting in the beginning is getting close to break the surface of the ocean. If the eruption continues in that vent for a little while longer. If it gets above the surface of the ocean, it is going to form a island and a lava eruption is going to start once the ocean cannot get any more into the crater.

There is a risk of new fissures in El Hierro opening up without warning. From what I am estimating, the area that this can happen has expanded about ~5 km or so from my original estimate that I made in few blog posts ago. The risk of new fissure opening up on land is going to remain high while this eruption is taking place. But this might well be a period of eruption activity for El Hierro. It is impossible to know for how long it is going to last, it could be weeks or it could be months and up to years of activity.

http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/

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The eruption off the southern coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands looks to be subsiding and from the sound of it, the focus of the activity is slowly migrating into shallower water. However, so far all the activity has remained submarine, producing an impressive discoloration of the ocean as tephra and volcanic gases are released from the vents. Check out this image of the eruption seen on October 16 (courtesy of Dave Mayer):

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2I8ub2e6qM[/youtube]

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Special report: Update 5 on El Hierro eruption, Canary Islands, Spain

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Jón Frímann



It seems that the eruption has dropped in strength during the past 48 hours or so.

But that most likely means that the current eruption crater is closing up.

But this does not mean that the eruption is over, as new fissures might open up without any warning close the El Hierro Island or on the island it self.

It is impossible to know that for sure at this moment.

As it currently stands it is unlikely that a new Island is going to form offshore of El Hierro island, as the current eruption crater does not seem to have the energy to break the surface of the ocean.

Earthquake activity in El Hierro volcano remains about the same as it has since the eruption did start on 10 October, 2011.

For the moment, the only thing that can be done is to wait and see what happens next.

But it is clear that the eruption in El Hierro is far from over from the data that I have seen so far.

But this eruption might pause for days to weeks, as that is not uncommon thing for a volcano to do during a active eruption cycle.



http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/

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Special report: Update 6 on the eruption in El Hierro, Canary Islands, Spain

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Jón Frímann

Little seems to have changed in the eruption of El Hierro since my last update on it. That was on 19 October, 2011. Harmonic tremor is constant, but appears to have dropped a little in the past few days. But with the fluctuation that is often increases again before it drops down again. This means that the eruption is ongoing, but is loosing power to continue at current eruption vent. This was not unexpected. This has however not slowed down inflation in El Hierro from what I can gather on GPS data on El Hierro.

As the current eruption vents close down it seems that earthquakes have started again under El Hierro. But the earthquakes have the depth from 28 km and up to around 5 km. This strongly suggests that new magma is entering under El Hierro and is again increasing the pressure inside the El Hierro magma sill (or chamber, but note that El Hierro does not have a stable magma chamber it seems). This increases earthquakes while the magma does not have any good path up to the surface. When a new path for the magma starts to form again, a large earthquake swarm is going to take place in El Hierro. It is not going to be anything bigger then already has taken place in El Hierro already. With the largest earthquakes going up to Mb5.0 in size. That is at least my opinion.

The major risk in the current eruption cycle of El Hierro is the risk that new eruption vent is going to open up nearby a human population without warning. But El Hierro has a lot of cinder cones from earlier eruption cycles. That creates the risk that a new eruption vent is going to open up on dry land without warning. But it is impossible to know when and where that might happen.

Claims that this eruption in El Hierro is going to create tsunami due to landslides are false and have no basic in fact or reality. As landslides are unlikely to happen in this eruption episode or if a eruption happens on dry land.

http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/

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After a lull in activity, seismic tremors are increasing around El Hierro again

October 22, 2011 – El Hierro – The National Geographic Institute had a spike of tremors on Friday- a total of thirteen earthquakes in the Canary Islands, twelve of them on the island of El Hierro and one in Atlantic waters. The most notable occurred in the municipality of Frontera Hierro, reaching a magnitude of 2.6. This earthquake occurred at 10.36 pm and was felt by the population. The last earthquake happened on the island took place at 17.38 am in the same municipality, with a magnitude of 2.0 on the Richter scale. The volcanic tremor has seen a slight increase over previous days, marking a peak at around 10.36 hours on Friday. Although the remission of volcanic phenomena, scientists do not rule out an increase in seismic activity.

http://www.laprovincia.es/especiales/20 ... source=rss

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[url=http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/swarm-of-tremors-reported-on-north-side-of-el-hierro/]Earthquake tremors north of island[/url
October 23, 2011 – CANARY ISLANDS – A large swarm of more than 41 tremors have been reported taking place today in the ocean on the north side of El Hierro. The tremors are happening off the coast of NW Frontera and are an indication that magmatic pressures have moved across the island.

Moving north... and a little further north is LaPalma

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[url=http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2011/10/23/swarm-of-tremors-reported-on-north-side-of-el-hierro/]Earthquake tremors north of island[/url
October 23, 2011 – CANARY ISLANDS – A large swarm of more than 41 tremors have been reported taking place today in the ocean on the north side of El Hierro. The tremors are happening off the coast of NW Frontera and are an indication that magmatic pressures have moved across the island.

Moving north... and a little further north is LaPalma

Not good at all. That is quite a bit of movement north in a short period of time!