El Hierro Volcano : Yellow-Red alert – Joke Volta images of tonight’s Smoking Lava Balloons

Last update: February 8, 2012 at 11:29 pm by By Armand Vervaeck

This is the most recent El Hierro Volcano eruption report

Update 08/02 – 23:18 UTC

Remember our update from 17:56 yesterday, when somebody of CAP told Joke that he had seen much stronger activity than usual in the Jacuzzi. ER reader Sissel has recorded the webcam at that time. The 4 minutes video shows the more intense activity. The activity occurred when we lived through 5 minutes of the most powerful HT since many days. The graph can be seen at the end of the recording.

Update 08/02 – 21:11 UTC
For the interested people : Etna is erupting right now ! (Thank you Nataly for telling us)
http://www.guide-etna.com/webcam/

Update 08/02 – 20:33 UTC
– There have been 3 more earthquakes while harmonic tremor its continuing at minimum levels:
08/02/2012    18:38      Depth 14 km        M 1.3    W EL PINAR
08/02/2012    18:51       Depth 12 km        M 1.3    W FRONTERA
08/02/2012    19:18       Depth 12 km        M 1.3    W FRONTERA

Update 08/02 – 20:32 UTC
– When Pam and New wrote us “SLS”, we immediately forwarded the message to Joke who was on her way to El Pinar. She asked the bus driver to stop, got a lift from a friendly person to Montana Naos, took some pictures and hitchhiked again towards El Pinar. These are Jokes pictures.

Update 08/02 – 16:39 UTC
– Just after writing about the calm day, ER readers Pam and New notified us of Smoking Lava Stones.

Update 08/02 – 16:23 UTC
– A calm day at El Hierro with few spectacular events but with the very beautiful pictures of Joke Volta.
– only 1 new earthquake since the last update, but a medium powerful one which can well be seen on the IGN HT graph.
08/02/2012 15:35 Depth 12 km M 2.2 SW EL PINAR

Update 08/02 – 10:21 UTC
– Very minor harmonic tremor all night and morning so far, a little increase in HT at 03:05 for about an hour.
– Jacuzzi activity was very much present all night long in a very sensitive webcam seting. We enjoy this setting for maximum observation at night.
– 5 earthquakes so far today!
08/02/2012   00:42      Depth 14 km       M 1.3   W EL PINAR
08/02/2012   00:43      Depth 12 km       M 1.3   SW FRONTERA
08/02/2012   02:52      Depth 11 km       M 1.4   W EL PINAR
08/02/2012   06:12      Depth 14 km       M 0.8   SW EL PINAR
08/02/2012   07:33      Depth 20 km       M 1.4   SW EL PINAR

Update 07/02 – 23:55 UTC
2 new earthquakes are making it a total of 10 today.
07/02/2012 22:57 Depth 11 km M 1.8 SW FRONTERA
07/02/2012 23:30 Depth 12 km M 1.7 SW FRONTERA

Update 07/02 – 23:02 UTC
– the current high sensitive webcam image shows the action in the jacuzzi. Hard to say what the light effects are (waves or hot material). That will be a question for CAP for Joke tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
– Harmonic tremor has been minimal for many hours again, but the eruption is still going on.
– 2 new earthquakes that make it a total of 8 today
07/02/2012 20:20 Depth 13 km M 1.0 SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012 22:25 Depth 10 km M 1.2 S EL PINAR
– Readers like Julian have seen the Ramon Margalef continuing his bathymetry mission after dark.
– Images Joke Volta from today February 7 2012

Update 07/02 – 19:30 UTC
ER reader Julian writes in our comment section : In an interview with Ramon Ortiz (Volcanologist of CSIC) in local newspaper Canarias7, Mr. Ortiz says that according to past experiences, the eruptive process is finishing. The new HT increase of the last couple of days are the normal evolution to a new phase.
He says that two different possibilities are: 1- that this process ends in few days and/or a new eruption is going on in another location.
He says that right now there are two different eruptions. The one in Las Calmas, and another one elsewhere which we may never know where it is, beacuse of the depth in the north area.
(ER : the supposedly second vent in the north has been a fierce debate among scientists from the very beginning). We refer to some updates we wrote during the weeks after the coloring of the sea).

Update 07/02 – 17:56 UTC
– A CAP scientists who met Joke in El Pinar a few hours ago said to her that he has seen an extraordinary jacuzzi around noon UTC today. He was quiet fascinated about it.
– We are also fascinated about the strange harmonic tremor we see today. A lot of powerful starts gradually winding down, again and again. Now it is calm again, but we cannot remind having seen the same pattern since a long time. It may be very wise to follow HT the following hours in combination with the webcam.

Update 07/02 – 15:08 UTC
– 2 new earthquakes:
07/02/2012 13:31 Depth 12 km M 1.4 SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012 13:58 Depth 10 km M 1.6 SW FRONTERA

Update 07/02 – 13:55 UTC
– The Ramón Margalef IEO Oceanographic vessel is back in town. He is making a new bathymetry session enabling IEO to measure the depth of the vent and to make new maps of the submarine cones. Meanwhile the local Canary Island press is quoting local volcanologists who are saying that IEO is not sharing the submarine research details with other (scientific) partners. It will at least take 2 to 3 days to get a new depth figure.
– 4 earthquakes so far today
07/02/2012   02:21      Depth 11 km       M 1.0     SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012   10:29      Depth 15 km       M 1.4     SW EL PINAR
07/02/2012   10:55      Depth 14 km       M 1.3     SW FRONTERA
07/02/2012   11:37      Depth 13 km       M 2.3     SW EL PINAR
– Harmonic tremor started to grow gradually after 03:00 as Ursula said in the comments (she lives in Australia and is looking at the HT graph and webcam while most Europeans sleep), winding down just before noon. Very suddenly everything restarted forcefully at 13:32 UTC, although nothing more than degassing can be seen at the surface.

Harmonic tremor from midnight UTC until 13:40 UTC – image courtesy IGN

Image Joke Volta

Update 06/02 – 23:55 UTC
– Joke Volta pictures of February 6, 2012. No SLS today.

Update 06/02 – 23:24 UTC
– INVOLCAN has just published two high definition videos of today’s flight. We can see how they measured gas levels and took thermal images, which would be useful if they made public. There is a strong degassing, blue stain, that can be observed.

– Second video shows the green stain in La Restinga port.

– Eruption webcam is showing a good view the stain even now that is dark. A near full moon illuminates the sea enough for the camera to capture an image. Also, the webcam was cleaned today for better image quality.

– Another earthquake since our last update
06/02/2012 21:43 Depth 15 km M 1.7 W EL PINAR