Category: Lava

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El Hierro volcano eruptions ends (again)

Based on the harmonic tremor data in the past few hours it seems that the eruption in El Hierro volcano has ended again. How long or if the eruption has really ended now is impossible to know at the moment. However it is clear based on the tremor activity that all eruption activity has ended and it did so suddenly and after sharp increase in activity several hours before that.


The activity in El Hierro volcano today. Notice the spikes when the eruption suddenly gains energy and how fast it dies out based on the tremor data. Copyright of this image belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Even if the eruption has ended. For the moment anyway. The area where the eruption took place is going to have hydro thermal activity for several months to comes, and up to many years if there are any shallow dike intrusions in the base of El Hierro volcano (and Island). I do not yet know if the eruption has ended, or if this is just an brake in the current eruption cycle. But next few hours to days are going to make it clear if this is an break or not. But I would not be surprised if the eruption started again at the same location, or an new one. As this is shield volcano and there eruption pattern often have breaks in them for shorter and longer periods of time.

Update 1: It has been sad that the graph has once again been re-scaled. To what size I do not know for sure. But in an comment on Facebook it was sad to be around -36dB. If that is the case. I am wrongly interpreting the data. Because of that. I have no idea what is going on in El Hierro volcano at the moment.

Update 2: It seems that activity has renewed again in El Hierro volcano. It started around 04:06 UTC and lasted until around 10:00 UTC. Then it started again at 16:00 UTC and is currently ongoing. This is now an eruption that happens in episodes. That means there are going to be longer and shorter breaks between eruptions in El Hierro volcano.


Activity in El Hierro volcano today. The increase in harmonic tremor marks the start of new eruption in El Hierro volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Blog post updated at 00:50 UTC on 20.01.2012.
Blog post updated at 19:31 UTC on 20.01.2012.

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New magma injection into El Hierro volcano

Based on the earthquake activity in El Hierro volcano it seems that new magma injection has taken place, or is taking place at current time in El Hierro volcano.

This new magma injection into El Hierro volcano has already been followed by stronger harmonic tremors and more activity on the surface. As should have been expected when this happens. It is impossible to know at the moment how large and how long this new magma injection is going to last. But while it is ongoing, more eruption activity should be expected from El Hierro volcano. So far nothing suggests that new vents are about to open up in El Hierro volcano at the moment.

Other then this renewed activity. Nothing else has been happening in El Hierro volcano. There have been some news reports (in Spanish, use Google Translate to read) about new thermal anomalies in El Hierro volcano. This might just be hydro-thermal activity following dike intrusions at shallow depth.

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New video of the eruption in El Hierro volcano

The eruption in El Hierro volcano continues with on and off rhythmic at the moment. So fluxuations in the harmonic tremor plots can be rather huge. That is from considerable amount of tremors down to no harmonic tremors at all.


The harmonic tremor in El Hierro volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Here is also an video of the eruption in El Hierro volcano. I do believe that this pictures are rather new. But I am not sure. The audio is Spanish.

It is impossible to know for how long El Hierro volcano is going to keep up the current eruption pattern. But this pattern might stop at any time, without any warning at all.

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Renewed eruption activity in El Hierro volcano

Since yesterday there has been an renewed eruption activity in El Hierro volcano. Harmonic tremor has not seen big increase however. This suggest that this new eruption so far is small and mot procuring a lot of lava to the surface. Some floating pyroclastic has been spotted on web cameras and by local people when they come up to the surface. This eruption activity appears be intermittent at the moment. Going on and off every few hours to days.


The harmonic tremor from the eruption in El Hierro volcano. Harmonic tremor remains low however, so there is not a lot of energy in this eruption at the moment. Spikes in the tremor chart are most likely explosions taking place in the eruption area. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

The eruption appears to have started again following an new dike intrusion from great depth into El Hierro volcano. This was followed by few earthquakes. All of them where small. If more new magma flows into El Hierro volcano this new eruption episode is going to increase in strength and in power. But it is hard to be sure if that is going to happen or not.


Eruption area in El Hierro volcano. This new eruption seems to be closer to the coast line then before. Copyright of this picture belongs to INVOLCAN. Picture is via Eruption blog (Erik Klemetti)

It is impossible to know what happens next in El Hierro volcano. So watching is important thing to do.

Other blogs about this new eruption.

Renewed Activity at El Hierro in the Canary Islands (Wired Science)

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Hydrothermal activity in El Hierro volcano

For the moment the eruption in El Hierro volcano has ended. The current harmonic tremor that is being detected might well be from hydrothermal activity that is currently in the area that erupted. But even if the eruption has ended, the area that erupted is going to be warm for many weeks to come. This is going to create hot springs below the sea level, among other ocean phenomena connected to this type of hydrothermal activity.


Harmonic tremor levels remain close to background levels at El Hierro volcano. Taken today at 16:05 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

As for future activity in El Hierro volcano. It is important to remember that eruption activity might start again on a new fissure. But that would be pre-seeded by earthquake activity. After the eruption activity stopped there has been some earthquake activity. But it is not at that level I would expect before a new eruption where about to start in El Hierro volcano. For the moment however things remain quiet in El Hierro volcano. A relieve to the local people in the area I would think.

Other

I want to remind people of the volcano and earthquake forum. It allows for more discussions on volcanoes, earthquakes and other stuff that might not belong to this blog.

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Eruption in El Hierro volcano ends

It seems that the eruption that has been taking place in El Hierro volcano is over. All yesterday there was an increase in harmonic tremors in El Hierro volcano, suggesting that the power of the eruption was increasing again. But around 10:30 UTC this morning the harmonic tremor dropped and around 11:00 UTC the harmonic tremor stopped completely. Signaling the end of the eruption that has been taking place for almost three months in El Hierro volcano.


The harmonic tremor in El Hierro volcano 27. December 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


The harmonic tremor today (28. December 2011) in El Hierro voclano at around 16:35 UTC (when the picture is saved). On this picture the drop in harmonic tremor can clearly be seen. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

The current end of the eruption does however not mean that El Hierro volcano is over. It just mean that the current eruption that lasted for close to three months is over. It might well be that eruption activity is going to continue in El Hierro volcano in few months to years time. But only time is going to tell us if that is the case or not. But for the moment, the eruption in El Hierro volcano has ended.

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Harmonic tremor continues to drop in El Hierro volcano

It seems that currently the eruption in El Hierro volcano is coming to an end. I do not know if this is an permanent end to the current eruption or just an short break in it. The reports that I have seen so far suggest that the main crater out of the coast of La Restinga has stopped erupting. The current harmonic tremor however suggests that an eruption is still taking place somewhere. But I have no idea where that might be at current time, and so far no clues where that might be. But the lack of earthquakes north of El Hierro Island suggests that an eruption might be taking place there. But that is just speculation.


The harmonic tremor in El Hierro volcano at 20:36 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Other then this. There is not that much to report from the eruption in El Hierro volcano, or what is left of it at current time. If there are any major changes. I am going to report them soon as I can. But at current time. It does not look like there is isn’t a lot needed to be reported on the eruption in El Hierro volcano.

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Harmonic tremor in El Hierro volcano drops

There was a change in the eruption in El Hierro volcano last night. The harmonic tremor started to drop of slowly. This drop in harmonic tremor comes several days after a drop in earthquake activity happened. But it might be possible that this drop in earthquake activity in north El Hierro volcano might be because a erupting vent did open up in north El Hierro volcano. But at such depth that the eruption was not noticed on the surface on the ocean. At least that might be the reason. But without any data, this is just a speculation. But at any rate, the earthquake activity in north part of El Hierro volcano has dropped down to almost zero in few days time.


The harmonic tremor yesterday (5 December, 2011). The drop in harmonic tremor can clearly be seen here. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


The harmonic tremor today at 08:15 UTC. The harmonic tremor continues to drop during the past few hours. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

The harmonic tremor drop is something that has happened before in El Hierro volcano. Just before a new fissure did open up in El Hierro volcano eruption. I am unsure if that is the case now. But it should become clear in about two to three days. But it is also a possibility that this eruption is coming to a end. But it has been erupting now for close to three months now. So this eruption might just ending. But we might have to wait a bit until that is confirmed. But at the moment the harmonic tremor is dropping and that means the eruption is smaller for the moment.

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Activity remains low in Iceland. Eruption continues in El Hierro volcano

At the present time the earthquake activity remains low in Iceland. This goes for both Katla volcano and other areas of Iceland. This is the regular quiet time in Iceland, as it happens sometimes. For the next days, there is a risk of frost-quakes as the ground freezes over in a cold snap.

El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands

The eruption in El Hierro volcano continues as before. New eruption vents have been opening up at random in the south part of El Hierro volcano. Earthquake activity to the north has dropped. While at the same time, the earthquake activity seems to have increased slightly to the west part of El Hierro volcano. I am not sure why that is yet.

In the tremor data. I have been seeing several explosions taking place. But they create a spikes in the tremor plot, that is different then what happens when a earthquake takes place.


The current harmonic tremor from El Hierro volcano. Explosions are the spike activity (30 November, 2011). Some of this however might be sudden increase in eruption activity. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Other then that. The eruption in El Hierro volcano seems to be about the same for the moment as it has been for the past almost two months now. So far it is impossible to know when this eruptions ends. But eruption in La Palma volcano lasted about one month on average. Eruptions in Lanzarote volcano have lasted about three months (last eruption was in the year 1824). Based on this. This might be a eruption that lasts for about 3 to 5 months at the longest in my opinion. But what actually happens is just something that is a wait and see matter.

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Update on the weekend activity

Iceland

This weekend was quiet in Iceland. There was almost nothing going on. There was only one small earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. But this earthquake swarm was tectonic in nature, not volcanic. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was about ML3.2 in size. Few earthquakes where in Katla volcano, but less this weekend then many others. But it is normal for Katla volcano to be quiet during November to March each year due to snow that is added to the glacier. But that increased the pressure of the glacier on top of the magma chamber (floating balance laws at work here).

Mainland Spain

There was a flurry of earthquakes on Mainland Spain during the weekend. None of this earthquakes where felt, from what I can gather at IGN web site.

Canary Islands, Spain

The eruption at El Hierro volcano continues as it has done for the past almost two months now. The harmonic levels are about the same as it has been, but there seems to be minor intermittent in activity from El Hierro volcano. IGN has setup a picture web site with images that show the activity since this eruption started clearly.

Erik at Eruption blog has good blog post about the magma mixing that appears to be taking place in the eruption in El Hierro volcano.

Other then this. Is is all quiet in Iceland for the moment. But frost-quakes should be expected in the next 48 hours or so in Iceland. As the ground freezes over in a really cold weather.