El Hierro Volcano : Green pre-alert – A new earthquake swarm has started below El Hierro – 40 earthquakes until 13:47 UTC
Last update: August 16, 2012 at 4:32 pm by By Armand Vervaeck
Update 16/08 – 16:25 UTC
– 3 more earthquakes from M0.9 to M1.1 at a depth of 11 to 12 km (12:25 to 13:47 UTC)
– Maybe IGN could take a few courses in press reporting at GNS Science New Zealand. If an important new swarm starts, like the one today (even with weak earthquakes), an experienced volcanologist may write 5 sentences in explaining what the opinion of the organization is. Why does a body like Pevolca is to be used for volcanology ? If i would live in Sabinosa, i would love to hear a few words if continuous quakes are occurring below my house.
Update 16/08 – 13:37 UTC
– 5 more earthquakes in between M0.6 and M1.2 and at depths in between 10 and 11 km
Image courtesy Avcan
Update 16/08 – 11:53 UTC
– We have to continue bringing updates on the seismicity below the island. 4 more earthquakes bringing the total on 32 today. Magnitudes from M1.0 until M1.5. Depths 10-11 km. IGN has updated his list up to 08:30 UTC
– At right a small map with the epicenters of a number of the latest earthquakes.
Update 16/08 – 09:50 UTC
– 1 earthquake has to be added since our latest update (07:29 – 11 km depth – Magnitude M 1.5)
– For your comfort, we have cut 2/3ths of this article. Parts 49 and 50 (yes 50!) have been archived. Links to all those 50 parts can be found at the bottom of this page.
The latest 10 earthquake epicenters – image ourtesy Avcan
Very important Update 16/08 – 08:19 UTC – A new earthquake swarm has started below El Hierro
– For the 3th day in a row the number of earthquakes are fundamentally increasing below El Hierro. Although not official, we think that speaking of a new earthquake swarm is the only right way of describing the current set of earthquakes.
– No less than 26 earthquakes occurred this morning (from midnight UTC until 07:00 AM)
– The majority of the earthquakes are still weak, but the M2.2 from early this morning was the strongest in a while and the Magnitude pattern tends to become stronger every couple of hours.
– The CHIE seismogram is not showing a lot of action, but the M2.2 can well be seen. CHIE is not the best station at the moment to show the seismic events at his best.
– The depth is continuing around the 10 to 12 km which is a complete difference from the July swarm, but still far away from an eruption. More seismicity at lesser depths is needed to create a pre-eruptive condition. Newt to seismicity, we have also the gas analysis, the deformation, etc who will have to confirm if the present swarm will end in an eruption. The magma pressure should be powerful enough to find his way up.
– We do not know how many University of Nagoya GPS stations are still working, but we know for sure that FRON station still works and shows a vertical increase of many mm, which sounds normal after the present set of increasing earthquakes in the area.
– A reason for concern at this time should be the location of the seismicity (El Golfo Bay and Sabinosa area – including the cliffs south of Sabinosa). Landslides and rockfall may become dangerous at Magnitudes from M4 and up.
for more information, history, and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/
Update 25/06 – 15:45 UTC -The number of earthquakes is picking up again
– Today will have the highest number of (M+2) earthquakes since September 30, 2011 (pre-eruption process at El Hierro).IGN has still a delay of several hours and we have counted already 88 M+2 earthquakes.
We have compared data from the full length of the eruption process. On November 3 (fierce action) 62 M+2 earthquakes were registered. On October 6, 2011, 88 M+2 were registered.
Update 25/06 – 15:28 UTC – As stipulated in the 14:36 UTC update, we see a drastic decrease in number and strength of the earthquakes. It looks like the strongest swarm episode is over for now and we expect no further deterioration of the situation if the current activity continues.
– Earthquake Animation of Julio del Castillo Vivero in cooperation with Avcan – magma trail has been currently blocked at El Julan (last set of bullets)
Update 25/06 – 14:36 UTC – We have the impression that, based on the HT hourly graphics, HT and the number of earthquakes has decreased considerably although we still notice strong ones. Probable explanation : Flow decreased due to blocked lava tubes, but pressurizes the paths even more which is related to a number of stronger quakes
– 82 earthquakes (the most important ones) listed by IGN until 12:12 UTC (we are now more than 2 hours later)
– The AVCAN map below shows the “road” the magma is following while pressurizing the below the island tunnels. The magma is gradually moving from the El Golfo island towards a cluster below the old volcano crater and finally towards El Julan (south coast). It still has to travel a little bit towards the submarine crater to restart the eruption process. The main question now is whether it will reach and reopen the cone or withdraw before that.
Map (without green line) courtesy AVCAN – quake locations based on official IGN list
The El Julan coast where the magma seems to have been blocked (last recorded group of listed earthquakes) – image Joke Volta
for more information and updates, go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/
El Hierro Volcano : Green and Yellow – Pevolca changes alert status from Yellow to Green
Last update: April 20, 2012 at 12:23 pm by By Armand Vervaeck
Update 20/04 – 12:17 UTC
– Joke Volta’s images of today April 20. Calima (African desert dust fog) has finally gone and the pictures are getting more colorful.
Update 20/04 – 07:50 UTC
– NO listed earthquakes since midnight
Update 19/04 – 23:55 UTC
– A third El Hierro earthquake at 18:59 today. Magnitude 0.7, depth 12 km. Epicenter here.
– We have changed the title a littlebit to reflect the current situation. No immediate risk to the island anymore, but still some minor volcanic activity (mainly earthquakes and a little degassing) around the main vent.
Update 19/04 – 15:21 UTC
– It looks like the volcano doesn’t like Pevolca or Mr. Armas !. Almost together with Mr. Armas tweet, the ground was shaking again, a M1.2 earthquake at 13:01 UTC at a depth of 10 km, here
Update 19/04 – 14:09 UTC
– More details have been reported a little later, such as :
* the alert level of the island itself will change from Yellow to Green
* the area surrounding the main vent is downgraded from Red to Yellow (in other words, some limited vigilance remains around the volcano)
* The BIO Las Palmas (Oceanographic vessel), who made some extensive bathymetry last week, measured the depth of the cone at 86 meter.
* Today’s images of Joke Volta
Update 19/04 – 12:09 UTC
– In a short twitter message from the Cabildo de Hierro (office of Mr. Alpidio Armas), the Green Alert of the entire island has been declared by Pevolca. Due to the very slim activity of the last couple of weeks (only faint stains and degassing), the Alert level change seems logical to Earthquake-Report.com
Update 19/04 – 11:03 UTC
– We have noticed one M2.2 earthquake at a depth of 32 km at 08:32 UTC at a very unusual place, which may explain the difference in depth.
Update 18/04 – 21:32 UTC
– ER reader John commented on our remark from this morning that we did not know where CHIE station was exactly. He said : found the location of CHIE it is Latitude 27.72700 Longitude -17.96070 . Information found athttp://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/stations?listr=Canary+Islands:Europe. Thank you John.
– 1 new earthquake at 14:37 UTC at a depth of 1 km (mostly IGN revises these shallow depths which has not been done so far) ! Magnitude : 0.5. Epicenter here
Update 18/04 – 12:12 UTC
– Joke Volta images of today April 18, a “Calima” day (special regional weather type). Joke hasn’t seen anything special today, but nevertheless she continues to make pictures mainly to have a full series of visuals.
Update 18/04 – 10:52 UTC
– 1 earthquake since midnight. Magnitude 1.4 at a depth of 13 km. Epicenter here
– ER reader Leona has commented that it looks that the thickness of the CHIE HT line has increased since more than 24 hours now. We have the same feeling and have therefore increased the line with the same factor today and 4 days ago. Of course this should not mean anything, as it maybe temporary noise or even instrumental error margin. We neither have an idea where CHIE comes from. El Hierro has a lot of different instruments.
El Hierro Volcano : Yellow alert – Salvamar Adhara spends a couple of hours above the vent “filming”
Last update: March 30, 2012 at 4:19 pm by By Armand Vervaeck
Camera used by SCIC for underwater filming
Update 30/03 – 15:42 UTC – Joke was (of course) in the port at the return of the Salvamar Adhara who spend a couple of hours above the vent. Based on what we have seen in the past weeks and months, we know that if the Salvamar Adhara remains a while on the sea, it is not for water sampling only (takes very short time). Bathymetry was done yesterday by the BIO Hesperides, so bathymetry should be excluded too. So Joke asked Maria José Jurado, the CSIC representative on board, if she had worked with the floating video camera (it is a camera on a rope pulled by the Salvamar Adhara, not a ROV). She said yes, we did.
Joke continued asking Maria José about what she has seen on the camera. She said that she had some interesting material, but she had to analyze it further on. She also said, that when the quality would be good enough, CSIC will send it to the Gobierno de Canarias to publish the video.
Joke also asked : was there still some activity ? She said : Yes, we still see some gases coming out of the vent. Joke continued asking : also gases at the surface ? She said : NO.
We will publish Joke’s images from the boat, spectators, camera on board, a few jelly fish in a while. ER comment : nothing new here of course, at least nothing which surprises us. The jacuzzis we have seen for many days in a row are absolute signs of further degassing. The main question remains, is there still lava coming out of the vent. The last time we know for sure that that was the case was on March 14 when the ULPGC ROV made a video recording of it. The latest bathymetry data from CSIC did tell us that the cone was at 88 meter. But this depth was measured at the end of February ! All frequent El Hierro eruption followers have 1 major question. How deep is the crater rim at this moment ? Is it a coincidence that the Salvamar Adhara starts filming again 1 day after that the BIO Hesperides measured the depth of the Las Calmas sea floor or cone ? Probably yes or probably not. At least we know that fresh erupted lava was seen by the ULPGC ROV on March 14, and there are NO indications that this pattern has changed since then. Does this mean that the depth will be less ? Not necessarily. Let us all hope that the results will be published soon in the website of the Gobierno de Canarias.
Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC – Joke told us that the Salvamar Adhara has just been spotted at the main vent, probably taking water samples
– On Jokes images (click on the thumbnails below), the main vent can well be seen as well as a far bigger colored area. There is doubt whether this is current coloring or a stain. We go for the stain.
Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC – Joke just send us a morning report. When walking down the lave fields to La Restinga, she stumbled in a AA lava field (thick sharp lava flowing out of a crater at a slow speed) but fell luckily in a lapilli field (small volcanic stones falling out of the sky during an eruption – more or less like thick ash). It is a little painful but everything is still functioning (including her cameras)
– While driving down with the bus this morning, Joke saw a jacuzzi, but in the meantime he disappeared again
– Joke told us that she saw technicians at the webcam mast ! Let’s hope that they will leave the webcams untouched as we will never see them again in time if necessary ! As politics are against any further “bad news”, we have no hope at all that they will reactivate the webcam.
– 1 earthquake since midnight.
– continuing microseismicity
– NO change in horizontal GPS deformation
Update 29/03 – 22:20 UTC Julio del Castillo Vivero has created a fantastic high resolution panoramic image with 60 images from Joke Volta ! (they regularly share their work). The result El Hierro as a color palette
Picture info : 180 meters above sea level – Taken today (29th March) – Mountain Dácila – Finca José Pérez, locals call it Montaña La Restinga
Click on the image to see this great picture in Full Size.
Update 29/03 – 21:20 UTC – The BIO (Buque de Investigación Oceanográfica) has made a short bathymetry mission stop at El Hierro today during his return trip from Antarctica. Spain has an Antarctica base and during the months November to February, the Antarctic peninsula is merely ice free.
– And to make the day complete, here are the beautiful evening images of Joke Volta
Update 29/03 – 21:04 UTC – The Spanish Army is really good in public relations. IGN needs to take an example on them. In a press report on the Armada Española website this evening, the bathymetry mission was highlighted.
“El buque ha realizado varias líneas de prospección en una cuadrícula de trabajo situada en las coordenadas: 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitud y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W de longitud, para determinar el punto de mayor altura del edificio volcánico y comprobar posibles variaciones desde el último levantamiento batimétrico.” Human translation : The vessel has done several rectangle routes under the coordinates : 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitude y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W longitude to determine the highest point of the volcano and check any possible changes since last bathymetry.
– Afternoon images Joke Volta (beautiful colors !)
for more information, and updates, go to:
Camera used by SCIC for underwater filming
Update 30/03 – 15:42 UTC – Joke was (of course) in the port at the return of the Salvamar Adhara who spend a couple of hours above the vent. Based on what we have seen in the past weeks and months, we know that if the Salvamar Adhara remains a while on the sea, it is not for water sampling only (takes very short time). Bathymetry was done yesterday by the BIO Hesperides, so bathymetry should be excluded too. So Joke asked Maria José Jurado, the CSIC representative on board, if she had worked with the floating video camera (it is a camera on a rope pulled by the Salvamar Adhara, not a ROV). She said yes, we did.
Joke continued asking Maria José about what she has seen on the camera. She said that she had some interesting material, but she had to analyze it further on. She also said, that when the quality would be good enough, CSIC will send it to the Gobierno de Canarias to publish the video.
Joke also asked : was there still some activity ? She said : Yes, we still see some gases coming out of the vent. Joke continued asking : also gases at the surface ? She said : NO.
We will publish Joke’s images from the boat, spectators, camera on board, a few jelly fish in a while. ER comment : nothing new here of course, at least nothing which surprises us. The jacuzzis we have seen for many days in a row are absolute signs of further degassing. The main question remains, is there still lava coming out of the vent. The last time we know for sure that that was the case was on March 14 when the ULPGC ROV made a video recording of it. The latest bathymetry data from CSIC did tell us that the cone was at 88 meter. But this depth was measured at the end of February ! All frequent El Hierro eruption followers have 1 major question. How deep is the crater rim at this moment ? Is it a coincidence that the Salvamar Adhara starts filming again 1 day after that the BIO Hesperides measured the depth of the Las Calmas sea floor or cone ? Probably yes or probably not. At least we know that fresh erupted lava was seen by the ULPGC ROV on March 14, and there are NO indications that this pattern has changed since then. Does this mean that the depth will be less ? Not necessarily. Let us all hope that the results will be published soon in the website of the Gobierno de Canarias.
Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC – Joke told us that the Salvamar Adhara has just been spotted at the main vent, probably taking water samples
– On Jokes images (click on the thumbnails below), the main vent can well be seen as well as a far bigger colored area. There is doubt whether this is current coloring or a stain. We go for the stain.
Update 30/03 – 09:59 UTC – Joke just send us a morning report. When walking down the lave fields to La Restinga, she stumbled in a AA lava field (thick sharp lava flowing out of a crater at a slow speed) but fell luckily in a lapilli field (small volcanic stones falling out of the sky during an eruption – more or less like thick ash). It is a little painful but everything is still functioning (including her cameras)
– While driving down with the bus this morning, Joke saw a jacuzzi, but in the meantime he disappeared again
– Joke told us that she saw technicians at the webcam mast ! Let’s hope that they will leave the webcams untouched as we will never see them again in time if necessary ! As politics are against any further “bad news”, we have no hope at all that they will reactivate the webcam.
– 1 earthquake since midnight.
– continuing microseismicity
– NO change in horizontal GPS deformation
Update 29/03 – 22:20 UTC Julio del Castillo Vivero has created a fantastic high resolution panoramic image with 60 images from Joke Volta ! (they regularly share their work). The result El Hierro as a color palette
Picture info : 180 meters above sea level – Taken today (29th March) – Mountain Dácila – Finca José Pérez, locals call it Montaña La Restinga
Click on the image to see this great picture in Full Size.
Update 29/03 – 21:20 UTC – The BIO (Buque de Investigación Oceanográfica) has made a short bathymetry mission stop at El Hierro today during his return trip from Antarctica. Spain has an Antarctica base and during the months November to February, the Antarctic peninsula is merely ice free.
– And to make the day complete, here are the beautiful evening images of Joke Volta
Update 29/03 – 21:04 UTC – The Spanish Army is really good in public relations. IGN needs to take an example on them. In a press report on the Armada Española website this evening, the bathymetry mission was highlighted.
“El buque ha realizado varias líneas de prospección en una cuadrícula de trabajo situada en las coordenadas: 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitud y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W de longitud, para determinar el punto de mayor altura del edificio volcánico y comprobar posibles variaciones desde el último levantamiento batimétrico.” Human translation : The vessel has done several rectangle routes under the coordinates : 27º 40´N // 27º 30´N de latitude y 18º 05´W // 17º 55´W longitude to determine the highest point of the volcano and check any possible changes since last bathymetry.
– Afternoon images Joke Volta (beautiful colors !)
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 2.2SW 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
Update 06/02 – 21:50 UTC
– One more earthquake since last update:
06/02/2012 18:04 Depth 11 km M 1.7
El Hierro Volcano : Yellow-Red alert – probable partial collapse of the eruption vent
Update 16/01 – 17:49 UTC
– Regular strong Jacuzzi bursts (among the strongest of the last couple of days)
Update 16/01 – 15:12 UTC
– A partial collapse of the vent occurred at 11:40. At 11:40, the HT was still at medium strength but the many hydromagmatic explosions were an indication that a partial or complete collapse could happen. Harmonic tremor is minimal at this moment but has a tendency to increase again.
Harmonic tremor in between midnight and 15:00 UTC – image courtesy IGN
Update 16/01 – 14:00 UTC
– Morning images Joke Volta
Update 16/01 – 08:46 UTC
– NO earthquakes have occurred since midnight UTC
– Harmonic tremor decreased a lot since the peak yesterday evening. A possible reason may be a partly collapse of the vent (a process which happens regularly)
– Big stain with a defined jacuzzi area in a Las Calmas sea with a strong surf
– Below more pictures of the opening ceremony of the “Restingolita Info Center” at La Restinga.
Update 15/01 – 10:07 UTC
– Harmonic tremor decreased a little during the night and stands rather low
– calm jacuzzi area but visible stain
– NO earthquakes since midnight
Update 14/01 – 17:16 UTC
– Based on the current and past position of the Ramon Margalef (gradually and slowly getting closer to the jacuzzi) we suppose that the Oceanographip ship is using one of his ROV‘s to have a close look to what is happening beneath the surface. The ROV’s are able to navigate to deep depths and are manipulated out of a control room on board of the ship. Depending on the visibility, which may be good out of the current, we might be able to look at great video one of the coming days. If the ship isn’t using his rov’s ha may be taking samples of the different waters newt to the vent. Both possibilities are realistic.
El Hierro Volcano (Canary Islands) : Red alert – A Sunday full with volcano action (including images and videos)
Last update: November 28, 2011 at 12:22 am by By Armand Vervaeck
This is the most recent El Hierro Volcano eruption report
Data Update 27/11 – 23:50
– A total of 16 earthquakes today
– Only 6 earthquakes were M 1.5 or greater
– the extremely shallow El Golfo 1.9 earthquake from this morning was not followed by other shallow quakes(luckily)
– harmonic tremor wad severe to very strong today and is still continuing that way around midnight. The IGN graph shows very strong tremor in between 20:00 and 21:00 and very strong again with a lot of powerful bursts from 22:00 on until the time of this update.
Update 27/11 – 23:30 Jesus Perez Quintero, the person in charge for Safety at El Pinar was aboard of the Salvamar when the ship navigated to the eruption spot this morning and this afternoon (see also images Joke Volta and Ian Carson). 3 heavily shaking videos were recorded during this trip. Collecting fresh lava stones was very important for science, a risky task but also well planned. We have embedded 1 video, the 2 others have to be viewed via the link below. These videos are the same than showed in the Avcan facebook site. The Videos are courtesy Jesus Perez Quintero and Avcan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFrHnAmwt8s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHyBiEHjQAY
Update 27/11 – 19:56 – Ian Carson reports
I cannot commend enough the personnel of IGN who have been very informative and so helpful and wanting to impart knowledge and information. If this had been in the UK, we wouldn’t have got near to the scientists or the stones. More pictures of Ian have been added to todays Picasa image report
Update 27/11 – 17:56 – Images made by Joke Volta Joke Volta was many hours in La Restinga today. She enjoyed being there and looking at the action. She paid a lot of attention at the Salvamar, the ship of the coast guard who went to the Jacuzzi to pick up the lava stones and pieces. Click on this image to see more pictures of what she has seen today.
Update 27/11 – 16:20 – Ian Carson reports from La Restinga – Scientists back confirmed been into Jacuzzi but lots of gas, sulfur and chlorine.
– Vent confirmed at 1.8 km from coast.
– Length of ship,’ Salvamar Adhara’ for comparison purposes is 21 meters.
– Steaming stones area bigger + brown stain.
– Rocks are hot when arriving at the surface, they have to use gloves to handle
Update 27/11 – 15:46 We have to thank the Cabildo of El Hierro, Telefonica, The Presidencia of the Canary Islands, Ian Carson, Hans-Werner, Birgit, Jean-Patrick and ourselves for this great series of images from today’s activity (.. and the day is not over yet)
Click on the images to watch the Picasa group of photos we have uploaded today November 27 2011
Data Update 27/11 – 14:24
– Joke just wrote us to make publicity for the Sunday El Hierro Volcano show !
– A pity for the backlight in all the webcams at the moment. The eruption is still taking place.
– 12 earthquakes since midnight
– Irregular but strong harmonic tremor on the IGN graph.
– while looking at the eruption webcam, ejected material can be spotted at regular times
Update 27/11 – 13:44
Ian just had a talk with a geologist. He confirmed that the present erupted material (as can be seen also on the picture below) is pure lava. The Restingolita stones were mixed seabed stones with new lava.
What people are seeing today is “the next step” in the eruption process. Almost over said scientists a couple of days ago, never been that active since the beginning.
Update 27/11 – 13:44
Below a really huge lava piece which was picked up this morning by the Coast Guard boat. The boat takes a big risk is getting so near to the eruption area. If ejected and still hot, the boat can be heavily damaged by this kind of magma.
Lava bombs picked up by the coast guard out of the El Hierro Las Calmas sea on November 27 – image courtesy Spanish Authorities
Update 27/11 – 11:49
We have recorded the strongest part of today’s activity and time lapsed more than 1 hour recording into 8 minutes. Enjoy the activity of the El Hierro undersea volcano. The ship (after a few minutes) is a small coast guard ship taking pictures from the Restingolitas. We hope, together with you, that these pictures will arrive in the open internet later today.
Data Update 27/11 – 10:52
– 10 earthquakes since midnight UTC
– strongest earthquake being a M 2.3
– the remaining earthquakes having a magnitude 1.3 and 1.5
– a VERY IMPORTANT new fact we have seen tonight is a shallow earthquake at a depth of ONLY 1.9 km (providing the data is correct). If new earthquakes would occur at this depth, an eruption event in the El Golfo bay cannot be excluded.
– Harmonic tremor is medium to strong at some times. The graph below gives an overview of harmonic tremor from 8 AM to 10 AM UTC or local Canary island time.
Harmic tremor on November 27 from 08:00 until 10:00 – image courtesy IGN
Update 27/11 – 09:14
The activity at the eruption area gets even stronger than before. The webcam operator just zoomed out a little to have a wider scoop. Earthquake-report.com expects more action today. A stronger Jacuzzi and from time to time a swelling geyser type action.
Sunday morning action in the Las Calmas sea
Update 27/11 – 08:50
The coast guard boat on the image will have the best pictures. What he does is however very risky as nobody can predict the start of a subaerial phase of the eruption.
Coast guard ship on the eruption site – screenshot courtesy Birgit Hartinger
Data Update 27/11 – 08:09
– the action which started yesterday by floating smoking stones is continuing this morning, hot pyroclastic material is floating to the surface. Just behind a weak Jacuzzi is formed. All this can be seen on the Telefonica eruption webcam.
for more information, updates, and missing videos. go to: http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/
Update 09/11 – 15:09 UTC : Helicopter video footage from yesterday November 8 as published by Diario El Hierro (video recorded by the Cabildo El Hierro)
Update 09/11 – 14:01 UTC :
– Joke has just reported that she had spoken to the technicians and the Cabildo (authorities). The technicianstold her that the installation of the webcam was almost finished and that only the software had to be configured. The least that we can say is that this news is hopeful !
– Pevolca did meet at noon and as could be expected nothing new has been decided
Update 09/11 – 13:04 UTC :
The Rámon Margalef has been throwing a buoy near the eruption vent yesterday. The ship is now circling the area. What the ship is doing know can be called a calculated risk. We have to admit that the ship is doing great work in continuous sampling of the emitted gases and the water (he has been observed many times at the edge of the stain the last couple of days). As Patrick Allard was telling in this article before, the composition of the gases is predominant in calculating the risk for the population.
– El Pinar webcam is live again, but it is hard to see any detail in the sea due to the back-light
Update 09/11 – 12:41 UTC :
Picked up from the comments made below (Name and address known @ ER) Cabildo de El Hierro and Telefonica are installing 2 webcams in La Restinga to enable people to follow LIVE the eruption events. Cabildo de El Hierro y Telefónica ya están instalando 2 webcam en La Restinga para el seguimiento en directo del fenómeno eruptivo Twitter
If this message is confirmed, this is really good news, as Telefonica is the main telecommunications company in Spain and is maybe the only instance who is able to guarantee huge amounts of traffic.
Very Important Update 09/11 – 12:22 UTC :
– Scientists in La Restinga and Guardia Civil who is currently flying over the earlier jacuzzi location have reported that the vent has probably closed completely. The activity has completely stopped at the moment. The Rámon Margalef Oceanographic ship is now close to the eruption vent is is probably taking gas samples and water samples.
We expect to publish images soon.
The closure of erupting vents is a normal phase in this kind of activity. This does not mean that the volcano activity is completely over. If the volcano continues in the same pattern, the seismic activity may getting stronger again as the magma trying to find his way to the surface has been blocked.
Update 20/10 – 15:53 UTC:
– 10 earthquakes have been recorded by IGN (max. magnitude : 2.0) since midnight UTC.
– The diving companies, one of the important sub-economies on the island, are living through a very bad period. Cancellations have been coming in until december 2012. Alpidio Armas hopes that the present crisis situation will end soon and that business will gradually be back to normal.
El Mundo Radiography animation of the El Hierro volcano eruption
Update 20/10 – 7:46 UTC: Spanish newspaper El Mundo did something what you can expect from a quality newspaper, they invested money in afantastic animated overview of what happened . The animation is divided into the following parts :
– Geography of El Hierro
– Divergent fault line
– location and size of the craters/cinder cones
– Ocean sea floor surrounding El Hierro
– Eruption specifics.
We advise our readers to take a look at this great animation. Click here to watch the El Mundo animation
Update 20/10 – 7:37 UTC: slight changing harmonic tremors during the last 8 hours. Since midnight IGN reported 2 earthquakes (this number can change when IGN updates her records).
The number of earthquakes yesterday was the highest in number since October 10 when the active period started
Port of La Restinga on October 19 – many fish died by the acidic water – image courtesy and copyright Desiree Martin
Update 19/10 – 23:58 UTC: Killing nature. Due to the lower Ph, the water is very acid and a lot of fish did not survive it. The picture at right has been shot in the port of La Restinga.
Update 19/10 – 23:55 UTC: A total of 16 volcanic earthquakes have been recorded on Wednesday. Max. magnitude: 2.6
Update 19/10 – 17:44 UTC: La Restinga fishermen demand that the Ramon Margalef will not only have geologists on board, but also the “best possible biologists”. They want to know from the biologists when their fishing grounds will get back to normal.
This is Part 3 of the El Hierro Volcano eruption report
Update 16/10 – 12:39 UTC : The giant gas bubbles occur at a frequency of approx. every 15 minutes
Update 16/10 – 11:19 UTC : Giant bubbles visible from the coast! (see also update from 10:44 UTC)
Eruption bubbles at El Hierro – picture courtesy and copyright laprovincia.es
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 – 09:50 UTC : The volcano’s activity can in part be evaluated in looking at the “live” seismogram published by the official Spanish geographic agency IGN. We hope that scientist will be commenting later today on what has happened around midnight (see seismogram below). We also hope that we will get more detailed video and pictures from the supposed new fissure area later today.
Update 16/10 – 09:40 UTC : PEVOLCA, the team of scientists and local authorities is meeting at El Pinar at 13:00 (1:00 PM) local time this afternoon.
A few words of merit : At earthquake-report.com we have the feeling that we are residing at El Hierro. Joke Volta’s multiple emails and SMS’s are like a webcam for us. Joke talks not only with a lot of people in the village, but also with people from the press, with the mayor and even the president of the Canary Islands. In the name of our thousand’s of readers we thank Joke for her relentless energy to feed us with news.
– As earthquake and volcano followers in almost every corner of the world, we know from many experiences that local people are often kept away from the news and that politicians, mayors etc can only be seen on TV. El Hierro is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT story. Even when they get loads of irritating comments from villagers of La Frontera for not opening the tunnel, local and province politicians and authorities are still AMID the islanders and are open to a talk with everyone. At earthquake-report.com we are experiencing this as a unique and much to be respected service to the people who elected them. The information bulletins from the local authorities to the islanders are very detailed and has even more information than can be read in the press. Also this service is of great value to the population.
Update 16/10 – 08:39 UTC : Joke Volta reports from El Hierro
– everything is calm this morning and even the journalists seems to have stayed ion bed longer today
– everybody is still “excited” about yesterday’s experience. The images of hot pumice arriving at the surface waters is the 100% proof that the earlier coloring is really an eruption. Also the non-believers became believers at the end.
– have just had a conversation with Jesus Perez, Chief security as they call him locally. He told me informally that nobody knows the next phase of the eruption, but that everybody from the safety team is prepared that the eruption will gradually come close to sea level and that steam explosions cannot be excluded.
– Yesterday afternoon, “the green spot”or so called ”mancha verde”, was seen fom the village of el pinar.
– At 5 pm yesterday (17:00), the complete council of El Pinar was gathered in a special meeting, to proclame to the population of this small mountain-village the start of the red tape proceeding in askingeconomical help to european, and national organizations, for supporting this crisis situation.
!. Almost together with Mr. Armas tweet, the ground was shaking again, a M1.2 earthquake at 13:01 UTC at a depth of 10 km, 
Comparison in amplitude of CHIE graph El Hierro
Image Joke Volta
Harmonic tremor in between midnight and 15:00 UTC – image courtesy IGN
Harmic tremor on November 27 from 08:00 until 10:00 – image courtesy IGN
Sunday morning action in the Las Calmas sea
Coast guard ship on the eruption site – screenshot courtesy Birgit Hartinger
