El Hierro Update

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El Hierro Volcano : Yellow-Red alert

Last update: March 1, 2012 at 3:49 pm by By 

Update 01/03 – 15:49 UTC
– NO new earthquakes
– NO change in HT
– ITER is currently installing more instruments at the Tacoron area. Currently someone has to go to Tacoron to do a number of manual measurements.  The new instruments will send data in real-time to the analysts. Once this has been tested, people will be allowed to enter this sector of the island.
– Joke Volta March 1 morning images

Update 01/03 – 09:12 UTC
– A short revival of harmonic tremor for a couple of minutes at 01:16. It has not repeated since then.
– The eruption webcam is frozen again for the second day in a row.  Hopefully the disturbance is not due to a serious problem.
– 4 earthquakes since midnight varying from M 0.6 to M 1.3, depths from 10 to 16 km. Epicenters on the usual line from Frontera to the main vent.
– Today is the last day of the INVOLCAN course Joke is following. She is very positive about this initiative. Compared to the Geology course given by Ramon Casillas from the University of La Laguna who was focusing more to the specific technical details of volcanoes and tectonics, the Involcan course is zooming in on the many dangers for property and population. Joke was surprised that Lahars, toxic gases, lava flows, landslides, explosions etc has caused many casualties in the past.  The El Hierro eruption goes on and on and looks like a peaceful event (what it surely is at this time), but in other places of the world volcanoes can cause a lot of misery. The pictures below have been taken during the Involcan course.
– Poets from everywhere in the world showed their solidarity with the people of El Hierro during a poetry event yesterday at La Restinga (pictures of this event : click here)

Involcan course about volcano risks at El Pinar

Update 29/02 – 23:55 UTC
– The day ended with only 4 earthquakes
– almost no HT
– No stain or jacuzzi
– we are very curious for the next couple of days. If the present situation continues for another week, Pevolca might decrease the alert levels

Update 29/02 – 15:46 UTC
– 4 earthquakes so far today
– In the many mails we received from Joke yesterday and after midnight today (yes, she often works until after midnight), something escaped our attention. An earthquake at 05:02 yesterday morning with an epicenter to the east of the La Restinga reef (in between El Hierro and Tenerife).
In a message later yesterday and before Joke had seen this earthquake location, she told us about a stain in that same area. When climbing montaña La Restinga, she usually looks both sides of the La Restinga. She found it strange to see a stain in that part of the sea (especially as we had no more stains above the main vent for many days). She indicated the stain spot in her image series from yesterday afternoon, adding a map with the location.  There are no signs that this is a viable reason for a new emission vent as the quake was reported at a depth of 20 km, but the least we can say is that this event is rather unusual and not immediately explainable, unless the stain drifted away from the main vent.

Update 29/02 – 09:23 UTC
– 2 great videos for Volcano Lovers : with special thanks to AVCAN, who gave us the lead for them.  We have embedded them in our Volcano News updates.

Update 29/02 – 07:55 UTC
– 3 earthquakes so far today. Magnitudes : 1.1, 0.8 and 1.3. Depths in between 7 and 12 km.
– unchanged harmonic tremor
– continuing micro-seismicity
– no visible stain or jacuzzi on the eruption webcam

for more information, go to:   http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/