Posted on by Jón Frímann

Special report: Eruption at El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands

At 04:18 UTC on 10 October, 2011 a eruption did start somewhere close to the El Hierro volcano Island (but inside El Hierro volcano system). So far nothing has been seen to this eruption, so location is uncertain at the moment. At the moment this eruption has only been confirmed by harmonic tremors seen on seismometers on El Hierro island.

From what I can tell, based on the harmonic tremor plots. It seems that the eruption has been growing in size since it started well over 12 hours ago. This suggests that the eruption is growing in size. That also brings up the issue that new fissures might open, both into deeper ocean and on shallower depth and even on land without any warning at all.


The harmonic tremor from El Hierro at 21:08 UTC on 10 October, 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to Instituto Geográfico Nacional.

A location for the eruption has been suggested, as can be see on this map here.


The speculated eruption in El Hierro. Copyright of this picture belongs to el-mundo.es Thanks to Dr. John v. Kampen for this map via email.

Lack of earthquakes does not mean that magma is not the move and has not reached the surface already. But this however suggests that magma now has a free flow upwards to the surface since sometimes yesterday, when the earthquake activity did drop suddenly from ~100 earthquakes to ~30 earthquakes over the day.


Current earthquake activity in El Hierro. It is my personal opinion that the eruption is around -18.05 and 27.65 to 27.70 (middle of that area, around 450 meter depth). Copyright of this picture belongs to Instituto Geográfico Nacional.


Spectral image of the harmonic tremor. This image clearly shows that the orgin of the harmonic tremor is magma on the move. Not something else. Copyright of this picture belongs to Instituto Geográfico Nacional.

I am going to update this blog post as more is known about the eruption in El Hierro.

Canary Island news about this. With thanks to Dr. John v. Kampen how did send them to me in a email.

Posible erupción al sur de El Hierro (Youtube, Spanish, Video)
¿Emergerá una nueva isla? (Youtube, Spanish, Video)

Blog post updated at 21:49 UTC on 10 October 2011.

529 Replies to “Special report: Eruption at El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands”

  1. OK – in regards of the ongoing back and forth in terms of an eruption: What is the definition of an ‘eruption’ here? It’s quit confusing since i thought that we are not talking about an eruption whilst gas is being released.

    1. Oh, gas is always released during an eruption. But an eruption means that there is a component of sollid ejecta coming forth from the orifice of the eruptive point of interest.

  2. Are there signs that La Palma is getting ready to erupt as well? Has this eruption changed the picture for La Palma or will it? Interesting questions.

    There is some chatter on some websites about a large tsunami that could be triggered the eruption spreading? Is this just hype?

    1. Crazy american hype. Amazing really what they can conjure up to be afraid of.

      This is most likely not affecting La Palma or Teneriffe at all. More like deminishing pressure there really.

      1. No worries.
        Sofar it seems just we have a calm and nice sub-aquatic eruption on our hands.
        If the spannish authorities are correct we will most likely not see anything unless it keaps up for a year or so.
        If Jón is correct, we could see a new island forming, and perhaps a beach went or something.
        I believe more in Jóns estimate. At least untill we have more data.

    3. Here is a comparison for you.

      In the last 10 years or so… La Palma has had an earthquake.

      A M 1.3 if I remember correctly.

    4. If you look at El Hierro you can see at some point in the past a huge section of it slid off into the sea, to the northwest. Possibly more could break off in the northern section, but for that island at least, it looks like the damage is already done.

      1. wikipedia:

        Landslides and tsunami
        There is evidence of at least three major landslides that have affected El Hierro in the last few hundred thousand years.[12] The most recent of these was the ‘El Golfo’ landslide that occurred about 15 thousand years ago, involving collapse of the northern flank of the island. The landslide formed the El Golfo valley and created a debris avalanche with a volume of 150–180 km3. Turbidite deposits related to this landslide have been recognized in drill cores from the Agadir Basin to the north of the Canary Islands.[13] Detailed analysis of these deposits suggests that the slope failure did not occur as a single event but a series of smaller failures over a period of hours or days. Local tsunami are likely to have been triggered by these landslides but no evidence has been found to confirm this.[12]

  3. A report in English from expatica.com (not as up to date as Jon’s):

    “Underwater volancic eruption near Spanish Canary island

    An underwater volcanic eruption is taking place just off Spain’s El Hierro island in the Canaries, which has been rocked by thousands of small tremors since July, local officials said Monday.

    The eruption is taking place some five kilometres (three miles) from the island at a depth of more than 500 metres (1,500 feet) but its effects will not be felt on the island, said volcanologist Alicia Garcia of the Higher Council of Scientific Research.

    “The earthquake monitoring stations on the island recorded the start of an eruption overnight. There is no visible manifestation at the moment,” she told AFP.

    The regional government of the archipelago issued a “yellow” volcanic eruption alert — the second level on a scale of four — after the island was hit by a 4.3-magnitude quake.

    The earthquake was the strongest of more than 8,000 tremors which the Spanish National Geographic Institute has recorded on El Hierro since they began in July. The majority have been too small to be felt.

    “There was a volcanic eruption overnight, what we don’t know is what is its state, if it has just started and if it is just releasing gases or if it is releasing magma as well,” the head of the island’s local council, Alpidio Armas, told Spanish public radio.

    “If the magma gets out, which appears will be the case, it will mean that the seismic movements will decrease,” he added.

    El Hierro, which means iron in Spanish, is the smallest of Spain’s Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic off the coast of Morocco. It is home to some 11,000 people.

    The last volcanic eruption on the Canary Islands was on nearby La Palma in 1971.”

    http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/underwater-volancic-eruption-near-spanish-canary-island_181006.html

  4. Nice post Jón!
    I am looking forward to seeing if you are right and they are wrong about the actual location.
    You positioning is quite more in line with where the thin quake trail went to the surface, then their positioning.

  5. One more translation, from here:
    http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/10/10/ciencia/1318281564.html?a=BP1a2fc15c578effe8f222fb49cb436f294&t=1318283600&numero=

    Scientists don’t discard the possibility of another eruption at El Hierro

    Vulcanologists have confirmed that this Monday morning a submarine volcanic eruption occured about 5 kilometres from the point La Restinga, in the municipality of El Pinar.

    This eruption, explained at the press conference the director general of the Security and Emergency of Canary Island Government, Juan Manuel Santana, did not cause any risks for the population. Even the fishing activity in the area is allowed as normal, even though the Commercial Marina (ship authority?) has recommended an exclusion zone of four miles around the location of this eruption.

    This volcanic phenomenon has been accompanied by a decrease in the deformation of the terrain, which was a result of the magmatic pressure and it is possible that also the seismic activity is going to decrease, even thouh the scientists do not discard the possibility that another eruption could occur, in a zone closer to the coast. However, probability for this to occur is considered low.

    1. They have to many authorities.
      I like the Icelandic way better.
      IMO calmly analyzes, and when they have decided how the volcano should behave (not the other way around 🙂 ) they inform the Almannavarnir, and then Almannavarnir takes care of the evacuations and other thingies. Calm and orderly.

      Here there is just a bunch of idiots running around trying to get a few seconds on the news… Cheech!

      1. Hehe, yes, but I suppose that’s the chaotic Mediterranean attitude vs. the Nordic orderly fashion.

    3. Interesting plot. It looks as though the eruption(s) could occur anywhere, especially in the area Jon suggests.

      I suppose it depends on where the path of least resistance is?

      2. Hmm……………that’s when the top blows off the volcano & a caldera is formed?

    5. Very interesting plot again!
      I’m looking for a map of el Hierro including latitude and longitude, can somebody help? So I can bookmark it for once.

      2. IMO needs these too.
        You can immediately tell what’s going on, if there are tremors and how strong.

    1. Lurking, thanks for the link, here is my hopefully more coherent translation than “the giggly rash”. 😉

      Start of submarine eruptive process at El Hierro confirmed

      The PEVOLCA has confirmed this Monday evening the start of an eruptive process on the island of El Hierro.

      In particular, a submarine eruption was observed at about 5 kilometres from the coast of the island a the depth of about one kilometre, accoring to the the Government of the Canary Islands.

      The great depth where the eruption occured prevents any magmatic material to rise to the surface. In spite of this, the emission of gases from this vent could have cause the death of several fish who have apparently been found floating on the surface on Monday afternoon.

      During the afternoon meeting, the directors of PEVOLCA decided to kepe the situation on the yellow alert, since the eruption is continuing without risks for population. In this light, they recomment to the inhabitants of the island to keep to their daily activities in a normal manner, however to pay attention to any unusual activity.

      With respect to the area around La Restinga, the directors of PEVOLCA said that there were no impediments to fishing or other subaquatic activitiy, since the volcanic phenomenon is located at a great depth.

      According to the data of IGN it is not excluded that new seismical movements may occur, in spite of the observed decrease in the frequency and the intensity of the earthquakes and the fact that the deformation of the terrain has decreased.

      This tendency needs to be confirmed in a new meeting of the directors of PEVOLCA on Tueday, at 17:00h, at which it will also be seen if the reopening of the tunnel at Los Roquillos is possible and if the 16 still re-located persons may return to their homes.

      As the final notice, the directors of PEVOLCA informed that scientists of IGN are monitoring 24/7 and that in case any new significant variations occur, public will immediately be informed.

      1. And please ignore all the spelling mistakes… I’m not very awake anymore, it’s late here.

  10. Thanks for the update, Jon!

    I have been out all day, so I apologise if I have missed an earlier explanation (there were 500+ comments!), but please could some kind soul explain the spectral chart to me? I know what a spectrum is, but I can’t work out whether the spike at 10 minutes on the x-axis is significant (maybe an earthquake?), or if the PSD plot to the right with a maximum in the red is significant.

    Thanks!

  11. maybe it can explode same as in 1883 year or maybe even bigger ?
    this constanse tremors are created by something hmm by what ?

    1. It seems slightly unlikely that it will explode. It might though have a moderate flanking eruption as it normaly does. It did not really explode last time around.
      What creates the harmonic tremoring is magma moving upwards through the feeding tube up to the surface. Nothing odd there.

  12. There seems to be a big increase in harmonic tremor at El Hierro seismomter. It started on increase suddenly after 22:00 UTC. It might well be that a new vent did just open and allowed more magma flow trough.

    2. Or, only gases are released to the sea, and the relief in pressure allows for more magma to enter in to the chamber?

  13. Some recent thoughts from AVCAN… If you read past the Google translation garbble, folks there watching the spectral developments are becoming more concerned about possibility that this is prelude to something… I don’t like the sound of the second option either!

    “That signal so strong tremor that is registering the seismograph on the island of iron, without wavering is increasing its magnitude, or power, it could be indicative of eye movement that magma is approaching the position of the sensor, ie, is progressing to the surface. What can we expect?

    The first option is to follow the submarine eruption, the system loses pressure, will go empty and that the tremor begins to fall and the seismicity and slowly everything goes to normal again.

    Now, there is a second option, if the tremor stops suddenly or near Houston, we have a problem, a cap. Magma will continue to rise, take up the seismicity and pressure jumps or jump the plug on the other site that offers less resistance, with a good shot earthquake (3.6 – 4.5) … If this occurs would have to pass the traffic light to red when or if the eruption was imminent.

    The result of that earthquake triggering, will undoubtedly be a rash in a few hours (2-6h) in the vertical earthquake trigger point or very close (1-2 km radius).

    The area most prone to view as seismicity has unfolded in this crisis, and recent earthquakes located on the ground, would be in a NNW-SSE axis where they say it is underwater volcanic activity and the eastern cone of the volcano Tanganasoga valley in the middle of the Gulf. In my opinion that line that runs from the tip of the water, through the Llanillos, rising in the east of Tanganasoga (The area between Sabinosa and Border), to the mountain area and down the valley on the other hand Julan to Tacorón Creek and along the coast from La Restinga, that line is that most papers have now have a possible eruption …. Where will open the / points of issue? … We’ll see what happens.

    within 48 hours … you know, the tremor does not hold much and I hope the first option. (Enrique).”

    Google Translation of recent entry (40 mins ago)
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Actualidad-Volc%C3%A1nica-de-Canarias-AVCAN/163883668446

    Also from that comment thread… David Brito provides link to spectral graph showing an increasing tremor signal (somewhere else in the world in 1999). Still trying to digest the meaning… Maybe it’s useful to someone out there for interpretation of El Hierro?
    http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4219/tremoresmodelo2.jpg

    1. If I understand it correctly, this means that the spectrograph for El Hierro is consistent with an initial eruptive event so far of between VE2 to VE3? An indication of the magma on the move or an eruption itself? I suppose we will have to wait and see?

    2. White Island, New Zealand.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whakaari_/_White_Island

      Probable VEI-3 in 2000 and VEI-2 in 98/99 time frame.

      http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0401-04=

      The issue is trying to discern some meaning of the way El Hierro is progressing. With the increasing spread of energy up the spectrum it is beginning to match the lead in to the explosive event in the White Island graph. When the signal ramped up into the 7 hz spread it popped.

      3. This is really stupid. Every time I click on that GVP link, I get a different volcano.

  14. They’ve now found a load of dead fish floating near where they think it is degassing or erupting, and Randolph mentioned on Erik’s thread that there was a warm spot in the sea, that he had noticed, though no warmer than 120 degrees.

    Irish Weather on line suggested that the release of the gas or magma was 900 meters deep 5 km south of El Hierro, though surprisingly at least one of the recent quakes appears to be north of the island again.

    Thanks for this post, Jon.

    1. If there is a spot that is 120 degrees warm on the ocean surface I can say that one of 2 things is true.
      1. Either the eruption is truly massive. Water is rather good at dissipating heat. It should not be that warm from a small eruption if it is at 1000 meters depth.
      2. The eruption is not that deep.

      Another option is that either the report is wrong, and another is that both 1 and 2 are correct at the same time… 🙂

    2. Do we know what the gas is? Toxicity or asphyxiation may have killed the fish rather than a hot spot.

      1. They have measued both SO2 and CO, so it most likely asphyxiation.
        But, if that report of a 120 degree hotspot on the surface is true, every fish in more than a cubic kilometre of water has been cooked.
        I do not believe that there is a spot that hot. The amount of energy needed is very large since it has been such a short time. Second of all, at 120 degress the entire ocean would be boiling wildly… Steam would cover a very very large area by now.

      2. Don’t forget that is probably a Fahrenheit number.

        If it’s °C then I think they would be less concerned about looking at dead fish and more about getting away from the steam.

      4. Extract of a report in El Mundo (translation by Google):

        “Dead fish in the area
        El director general de Seguridad y Emergencias del Gobierno de Canarias informó de que el semáforo de riesgo volcánico se mantiene en amarillo y señaló que el riesgo para la población ha disminuido al tratarse de una erupción submarina. The Director General of Security and Emergency Canary Islands Government reported that the traffic light remains volcanic hazard in yellow and indicated that the risk to the population has declined to be a submarine eruption.

        Santana confirmó la aparición de algunos peces muertos en la zona y que han podido morir posiblemente debido a los gases procedentes del magma. Santana confirmed the appearance of some dead fish in the area and who may have died because of the gases from the magma.

        El presidente del Cabildo de El Hierro, Alpidio Armas, afirmó que en las condiciones actuales, el Foto Sub de la isla, que es un certamen internacional de fotografía submarina, se celebrará. The president of the Cabildo de El Hierro, Alpidio Armas, said that under current conditions, the Sub Picture of the island, which is an international underwater photography contest will be held.

        Armas apuntó que de seguir la evolución del proceso en las condiciones actuales, con una paralización de la deformación del terreno y una disminución de los seísmos, mañana se podría estudiar la apertura del túnel de Los Roquillos, que comunica los municipios de Frontera y Valverde, y que ha estado cerrado debido al riesgo de desprendimientos. Armas said that to follow the evolution of the process under current conditions, with a paralysis of the ground deformation and a decrease of earthquakes, tomorrow could be considered the tunnel opening in Los Roquille, which connects the municipalities of Frontier and Valverde, and has been closed due to the risk of landslides. Asimismo podrían volver a sus casas las 15 personas que aún permanecen desalojados. They could also return to their homes 15 people who remain displaced.”

        http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/10/10/ciencia/1318281564.html

      5. Sorry – Google did not translate; try again.

        The Director General of Security and Emergency Canary Islands Government reported that the traffic light remains volcanic hazard in yellow and indicated that the risk to the population has declined to be a submarine eruption.

        Santana confirmed the appearance of some dead fish in the area and who may have died because of the gases from the magma.

        The president of the Cabildo de El Hierro, Alpidio Armas, said that under current conditions, the Sub Picture of the island, which is an international underwater photography contest will be held.

        Armas said that to follow the evolution of the process under current conditions, with a paralysis of the ground deformation and a decrease of earthquakes, tomorrow could be considered the tunnel opening in Los Roquille, which connects the municipalities of Frontier and Valverde, and has been closed due to the risk of landslides. They could also return to their homes 15 people who remain displaced.

      6. “The president of the Cabildo de El Hierro, Alpidio Armas, said that under current conditions, the Sub Picture of the island, which is an international underwater photography contest will be held. ”

        Priceless, the answer to a sub-aquatic eruption is to hold an underwater photography competition 🙂
        I will be behorketh! 🙂

      7. *blink….

        Yer kidding. Let me guess… a bfreedive competition for the most artistic image to be emblazoned on the latest tourist brochure.

  15. Hello all, I’ve been following this blog for months now and this is my first posting, although I feel I know most of you regulars already. I’ve always had an interest in volcanoes since school (a long time ago) and this excellent blog has educated me much more. Following the Icelandic links makes me want to visit Iceland and see some of the sights – maybe when the snow goes next summer ! El Hierro is an exciting development and have been tracking this since it was highlighted here.
    However, the last posting of Andy Scollick is really interesting, especially this chart http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/4219/tremoresmodelo2.jpg
    If we compare this with the one from El Hierro : http://www.avcan.org/index.php?m=Catalogo&a=gramas and assume we can expect a similar outcome, it could be very close to an explosive event.

    1. Reeeeeally depends on the volcano.

      White Island has gone off quite a few times and has an established piping system. This thing hasn’t gone off (in this area) in recorded history.

      No one is really sure how it’s gonna respond. Also remember that it’s erupting (if it is) through the debris area of the El Julan slide. That’s gonna be a lot of disorganized strata… and may account for the seeming lack of earthquakes to signal that it popped the top.

      1. Yes, it is a rather unknown area really.
        If it is erupting into a debree field it should though create some rather spectacular brecchia. Sad that we will never see it.

      2. There is also one big thing differing them, on the White Island web cam there is a dino figurine glued down.
        None such as yet has been glued infront of the El Hierro volcano web-cam.

      3. mmm – didn’t realise there was a slide at this end of the island but looking at the steep-sided cliffs on Google Earth – seems obvious now. Knew about the El Golfo slides. I need to do a bit more research ! You’re suggesting then that the composition of this slide is going to take a bit of punching through ?

      4. Not really… I’m thinking that since the strata has already been broken up, that getting through it won’t be as hard to do… or as noisy.

  16. Sakurajima sure put on a gorgeous display last night. Did anyone catch the little bird that landed, gazing into the webcam while the mountain painted the sky in the background? Priceless.

  17. I also believe that the La Palma section has been heating up especially with the current discovery of the undersea eruption where magma is on the move.

  21. Katla is still restless:

    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 02:10:57 63.641 -19.188 1.1 km 0.2 76.27 3.1 km E of Goðabunga
    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 02:10:09 63.628 -19.329 1.1 km 1.2 36.12 4.1 km WSW of Goðabunga
    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 01:47:08 63.639 -19.176 1.1 km -0.1 72.28 3.7 km E of Goðabunga
    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 01:02:54 63.625 -19.197 1.1 km 1.9 90.03 3.1 km ESE of Goðabunga
    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 00:29:12 63.636 -19.359 8.8 km 0.8 86.51 5.4 km W of Goðabunga

      1. For the complete turds like me; could somebody make arrows pointing to the exact tremor-locations on the tremor map so as to teach us something about how it looks? (for example on the Eystry-Skogar tremor map)

        Would be awesome 🙂

      3. Hi again and thanks for replying!

        I now realize that I didn’t make myself clear enough; what I would like was for someone to annotate the actual tremor-graph with the exact location of the harmonic tremors. I’ve tried to search & google to find out how you can recognize it on the graph itself but I’m too stupid too figure it out! 😀

      1. I vote we name it “Bob”

        Sort of rolls off the tongue. “Canaria isla de los Bob”

      2. First cup of coffee, so I should be excused.
        But I read isla de los Boob. Horrible name for a volcano.
        Islas des las Methanys sound more Umphish 🙂

        With a depth of only 1500 feet it might become a new canary Island within a few weeks. We will know after the dive-picture competition.

      4. Haha..

        Future schoolbooks:
        “In the beginning of october 2011 a volcanic eruption took place beneath the sea just south of El Hierro. Many islands has formed this way and it truly is a display of earths awesome power. And so it came to be that a new land was formed and it was named….Bob!”

  25. And now we have a problem.

    Clipping is when the input signal is so strong that the circuits that are designed to handle it… can’t. In audio files, this leads to distortion when the amplifiers are over driven. Usually, you can still make out the audio since the human ear/brain system is pretty good at pulling usable info out of the garbage and distortion.

    But in this case, we are trying to gage what a volcano is doing. And the tremor signal appears to have started clipping.

    http://i54.tinypic.com/347v4vo.png

    You can work past this by watching the spectral portion of the plot and looking at how wide a spread the frequencies have. In this case, 4.5 hz and 5 hz seem to be coming into play.

    Another way to work past it is to look at the non-spectral plot, those will skirt over on top of the other traces if needed.

    Slowing down? Not from what I see.

    1. I dont know if its any use to you (cos technically I am challenged 🙂 but the PSD plot to the right seems to be a good indicator of frequency intensity change – I tried to copy and paste this bit and overlay one on top of the other, but I cant make them transparent so that the change can be clearly seen. Can you?

      2. “…but I cant make them transparent so that the change can be clearly seen. Can you?”

        Sort of… if I cheat.

        http://i56.tinypic.com/2mz0hzq.png

        Not the most elegant way of doing it, I inverted the image, skewed the color balance and added it to the previous hour which had a different color balance. Yellowish is where the two are relatively common.

      3. Thanks Lurking – does not seem to be hugely different, but might be a useful thing to watch as this eruption unfolds

  26. The depth of the water around El Hierro is interesting. It’s 700m/2000ft deep just a mile off the coast there, and goes deeper very quickly as you go further out. Just 5 miles from the coast it’s over 2000m/6500ft deep!

  27. Today also more “action” on Katla:

    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 05:43:34 63.637 -19.342 1.1 km 2.1 84.83 4.6 km W of Goðabunga
    Tuesday
    11.10.2011 05:16:15 63.656 -19.088 1.1 km 1.2 90.02 8.2 km ENE of Goðabunga

  28. And harmonic spikes to each of the quakes. Hmmm…
    Looks like Lady K is jealous from loosing our attention to Her Don Hierro cousin…

    1. Yeah something is really going mad below the surface of the sea..

      But is the eruption confirmed or not?

      Sander

      1. Yes it is clipping all the time now.

        But before I got to bed it slowed for a brief time.
        Only natural that it will go up and down a bit. But the trend is steady up.

  31. You need some rest, old pal.
    I’ve been eagerly reading to your all comments and lurking at Lurking’s plots, but little time to answer.
    Wished I could better help with translations, but Ursula is doing a great job.
    I must confess I am a bit concerned as to the outcome of El Hierro crisis…
    Have a nice day!

    1. Renato, I share your concern for El Hierro, it has definitely the speed up now. I guess no one can second guess the next move. Are there any knowledge if this is a volcano with a magma chamber or a sill system like Lady Eyja? Or is it just unknown, due to the lack of eruptions in historic time?

      Will the magma suddenly cork up and move back to the main island? I suppose it´s time to ask for El Hierro webcam links just in case.

  32. THIS is the place to get all the accurate information. Hat tip for Jon, great blog, and all you followers who contribute with knowledge and graphics.

    I´m watching Katla, seems to have started a new warm-up sequence. She behaves much like my microwave when warming deep freeze food, in pulses. Definitely something moving in the dark underground beneath the ice cap.

    El Hierro, where is that submarine that will film the eruption? (I´ve seen to many volcano B-movies….) I want to have more evidence than a report on dead fish, preferably on live feed cam!!! 😛

    1. Hey, at least we’ve got progress here regarding sights of whats happening. Yesterday: Old grumpy fishermen – today: Floating Fish. 😉

    1. Indeed. It seems something is increasing. Now for the million dollar question..

      What is the spectrogram showing? Could someone explain the charts please?

      2. I’m guessing that that the colours represent the ‘density of shaking’ at that frequency (red = lots at that frequency). I might be wrong ?

    2. Indeed, it start to look scary – compared to the tremor from yesterday morning!

      Is the up-building here caused by more presure? or is it indicating only that the outflow of ‘whatever’ in the ocean increasing?

  36. If compared with Etna’s tremor during her paroxysms, this thing is HUGE.
    Since we don’t have the confirmation of shallower quakes pointing to the exact location where magma may find a way out, I get goosebumps only by thinking what could happen.
    Even if it is an effusive eruption, if there’s people on its path, it could cause a mess.
    We saw that in Fimmvörduháls: it may change direction quickly, so no one can be sure of where it may be heading to.

    1. It keeps growing, think it’s really a massive eruption..
      Pity there are no images available…

      Samder

    3. Not even slightly compareable, Etna is a different kind of volcano, different setting, different history, and last but not least, as has been said, the tremor scales are different.

  37. How can we tell it´s intensifying if the seimic gear has trouble reading it, as Lurking pointed out the signal is “clipping”? The signal is to strong for the instruments workfield. I have worked with sensitive detector equipment in labs, and this is what you get when you are in the wrong range of detection.

    The trick might be to check the colour graph, if red means strong vibrations and blue none? Am I right?

    2. One thing you can do is look at the next nearest seismometer at La Gomera.

      Link.

      Looks like has indeed intensified a bit in the last couple of hours.

  38. Note that the scale of tremors can be different. I.e if “etna tremors” has the scale of 100 for each spike and “El Hierro tremors” has a scale of 10 for each spike the visual effect would be that the canarian eruption is 10 times as big.
    Just an example..

    But I do believe this might be bigger and we will have to wait and see what pops up.

  40. Not wishing to wait for the boat with submersible I had a look at the seabed on Google earth. 🙂
    Interestingly there is a mini sea mount about 6/9 miles from S Coast of El Hierro. It looks like a very deep trench near to the coast then where there has been a landslip I presume the debris has made a shelf.. However there is a nice pointed “peak” with a “tail” running W > E. This is not a shelf from the land slip. To me it looks more like a volcanic ridge that is moving along the line of the movement caused by the plume?
    Forgive me if this is really not correct reasoning but like everyone else I am looking for answers to all our questions about this “eruption”
    This is roughly where the latest earthquakes are located.
    I wonder if this is where the eruption is?
    http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x96/wildjinny/Volcanoes%20and%20Iceland/seabedHierro.jpg

    1. Trying to see what you are…. and its a bit of a stretch, but could that depression to the southwest be the remnants of an undersea caldera?

      1. I had not thought of that Jules. I was thinking more of faults/ fracture lines caused by plume movement and/ or very old ridging from MAR providing weaker spots for magma to escape.

    1. Okay, thank you for that map. It was most illustrative.
      I think we can forget that it will go back to the Island of El Hierro. I think that Isla de Bob is the main place. There are volcanos all around, with three apparant larger volcanic strucutures.
      1. A field of cones stretching south in the “tail” of El Hierro, and numeros smaller cones to the west of it.
      2. Henry Seamount, formative Island.
      3. Las Hijas Seamount, formative Island.

      It just feels plain stupid to believe that the eruption will “go backwards” up to the Island. Intuitively it feels like it should either stay where it is, or move onwards. If I understand it correctly the current location of the hotspot is thrending from El Hierro to Las Hijas Seamount.
      I hope we will se a new Island form. The size seems to be indicative of a large enough eruption to form an island, depending of duration of the eruption.

    1. Lurking should write them that they should at least put his name under the graphic. i mean he is working his ass of with those plots and should be named adaequately.

      1. I would agree – but they would not acknowledge a pseudonym so that may be why as they do not have his ‘real’ name.

      2. Perhaps he should get an honourary degree or something for his contributions to clarity in reporting seismic events. Maybe Erik Klemmeti can award it ? 🙂

      2. Awww! Come out from behind that curtain. We have all at one time or another posted something “wrong” or mis-interpreted something we have seen on a cam. You are absolutely right though… there ARE emissions from that Volcano… it is just the wrong one!!! 🙂
        The nice thing about this blog is that others may laugh with you, they will certainly tell you if you are wrong ( Steep learning curves here) but unless you are a crazy doom monger they are a friendly, tolerant bunch 🙂

        PS If you make a blunder in future, particularly in Iceland…. always blame the Sheep 🙂

  46. I’m looking for a map of el Hierro including latitude and longitude, can somebody help? So I can bookmark it for once.

    Want to see exactly which location Lurking points out on his plot http://i53.tinypic.com/2v0o39y.png (yesterday 22:24); “Strongest near surface cluster -> 27.58° 18.02°W”

      2. Yep, my reaction precisely. Not good news, unless Google Maps are wrong with their projection…

      4. Thanks, Ursula. – The port of La Restinga.
        Also thanks for your very very good translations! So much easier for us than Giggeling.

      3. The point is the green arrow to the west; the red A on the cinder cone is a building (a cafe?).

      2. Hmm….they really need to take a long hard look at Lurking’s plots.

        The plots show that there is probably a lot of magma under El Hierro. If it comes out off La Retsinga, there may be a large empty, may be unstable, magma chamber under El Hierro or it could still come out on land as Jon says.

    1. Activating? There were almost no quakes in the previous month under Vatnajokull.. Activation under Myrdalljokull is more clear

      Sander

      1. Yes, you can talk about activating, when the quake count jumps from sporadic one or two per month to a few per day…

  49. Sooo impatient! Would like to see some evidence or aerial pictures or undersea shots of what is occurring here – it looks like a large eruption! How long will it be I wonder?

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