Tag Archives: Red Alert

Hudson Volcano in Chile—Alert

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Last update: October 27, 2011 at 6:58 pm by By 

Cerro Hudson volcano, a Southern  Andean volcano  located in the border area in between Chile and Argentina has started a minor eruption.
SERNAGEOMIN, the Chilean authority who is guarding the activity of the volcanoes hasincreased the alert level from 3 to 5 (Red Alert).

Onemi, the Chile government organization who is coordinating all actions to protect people and infrastructure from being damages /injured has called the RED alert for the following localities : Aysén, Río Ibáñez and Chile Chico in the Aysén area.

Both organizations will of course follow up the situation of Cerro Hudson 24 hours on 24 and 7 days on 7. Due to the remote location of this volcano, the reporting from the eruptions will be far less than it was the case with the Puyehue – Cordón Caulle

ONEMI update October 27 – 18:51 UTC :
There are now three steam vents on the volcano. One of the vents is also emitting ash. The 3 vents are approx. 500 meter from each other (triangular form). This was observed this morning (Chile time) and was analyzed by SERNAGEOMIN technical staff.
119 people are currently evacuated from the Lake Caro area and have moved to houses from relatives in the area. Chile police is trying to evacuate an additional 13 people. Onemi Chile has reported that until this morning nearly 900 volcanic earthquakes were noticed. Only a limited number were felt by the people living in the area. New FlyBy’s are planned later today to follow up what is happening. Onemi also told the press that they are ready to take whatever measures are necessary to control the situation. Emergency staff in the volcano area have been equipped with satellite phones.

Activity report October 26, 2011
Translation of the Sernageomin press statement by Earthquake-Report.com
The Red alert (Level 5) has been called by SernaGeomin out of fear that a major eruption could happen in the coming hours or days.
The Hudson volcano eruptions are characterized by eruptive columns of several km high.
The dispersion of this material in the atmosphere could affect localities to N, E and S of the volcano. Unlike most volcanoes in other regions of Chile, Aysen population centers are situated downwind of volcanic centers and therefore are highly likely to receive fall of pyroclastic material.
The huge quantities of ice in the caldera could eventually generate destructive lahars(volcanic mudflow), mainly affecting the river valleys of  Cupquelan and Huemules, located to the NW of the volcano.
Pyroclastic flows could, depending on the magnitude, affect the immediate vicinity of the caldera (within a radius of 15 to 20 km),
SERNAGEOMIN staff and local authorities today conducted a flyby in Hudson Volcano, which could see a column of gas, white and with little ash, about 1.5 km in height, with the subsequent formation of the Rio Huemules lahars. Erupting lava has not been seen. We have to state however that during the 1973 eruption a subglacial eruption occurred. This suggests a process of fissure opening at shallow levels and the onset of an eruptive process that is still minor but can evolve into a major eruption in hours and / or days.

for more, photos, updates and info, go to:    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/27/chilean-authorities-are-raising-hudson-volcano-cerro-hudson-to-red-alert-after-minor-eruption/

 

 

 

 

Red Alert—El Hierro Volcano

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El Hierro Volcano (Canary Islands) : Red alert – eruption bubbles visible from the island

Last update: October 16, 2011 at 2:12 pm by By 

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.

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