Posted on by Jón Frímann

General update for Katla volcano and El Hierro voclano

This is a general update for Katla volcano and El Hierro volcano.

Katla volcano, Iceland

During the weekend there was a minor dike intrusion into Katla volcano caldera. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was a ML2.1 with the depth of 1.4km. This is among the smallest earthquake swarms in Katla volcano since activity started to increase after the small eruption in July 2011. The reason for this earthquake swarms in Katla volcano are dike intrusions (wiki). Sometimes following this are small glacier floods from Mýrdalsjökull glacier that is on top of the caldera. But that does not seems to have this time around, or the last time there was a dike intrusion in Katla volcano (few weeks ago).


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano during the weekend. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands, Spain

The eruption in El Hierro volcano continues as it has been doing for the past four weeks (almost). But the chance of a new island forming has grown somewhat in the past few days. The main reason for that is that eruption did gain some strength during the past two weeks. The increased strength in the eruption was due to a new injection of magma into El Hierro volcano. Both at the main magma sill and what seems to be a new magma intrusion into El Hierro at depth. That magma has so far not been able to reach the surface and remains at the depth of 20 km or so. But there also seems to be some dike intrusion activity been taking place in the same area, as more magma is injected under El Hierro volcano North West of the town of Frontera (IGN name information).

For that reason the risk of new eruption vents open up in this area is high in my opinion and is going to remain that during this eruption. But it remains to be seen if a new eruptions vents open up in this area. But that depends on the amount of magma that is currently injecting into El Hierro volcano at depth. It is impossible to know for how long new magma is going to get supplied into El Hierro volcano. But so far this process has been ongoing since July, so that is already five months (or about that) that new magma has been flowing into El Hierro volcano.

The formation of new Island off the coast of El Hierro Island is now a real chance. As the erupting vent has build up close enough to the surface of the water to start the Surtsey Island process. That process in it self is going to take few weeks to complete, at least until the crater no longer gets water into it. When the water can no longer into the crater the eruptions turns to lava fountain eruption. A Hawaiian style of eruption to be exact. That progress is going to remain to the end of eruption. But this is only going to happen if the eruption lasts long enough to build a small Island off the coast of El Hierro Island. So far that remains unseen. However the chance for this to happen is good in my view.

There is also worth noticing that this eruption is a bit variable in eruption strength. This can clearly be seen on the harmonic tremor plots that can be viewed online from El Hierro volcano. This is normal, as the flow of magma from inside El Hierro volcano is not stable and can change suddenly. The risk of new fissures to open up without warning remains high in the area around the current eruption vent is also high. The new fissure have the risk of opening up without any earthquakes and warning. To some extent this has already happened during this eruption. But I am not sure the new eruption vents did stay erupting for a long time. This is however most likely to repeat it self regularly during this eruption.


The harmonic tremor in El Hierro volcano on 7 November, 2011 at 09:32 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to Instituto Geográfico Nacional.

Off topic: Small apology

Here is a small apology to my readers. I have been a little bit under the weather in past few weeks. There are many reasons for this. But the biggest one is that my plan to live in Denmark failed this summer. But the chance of me moving back to Denmark has lifted my mood again. But I also found that playing computer games helps me dealing with my current status a bit. Because of this under the weather issue. My blog post have not been that good in my view. For that I want to apology. I can’t promise that this won’t happen again while I am living in Iceland. It is also a factor that the darkest time of the year never goes well with me (Mid October to early March).

206 Replies to “General update for Katla volcano and El Hierro voclano”

  2. Mate, I reckon this blog has been first class – just look at the number of comments posted. People are paying attention. Keep it up. Sometimes the task of being a Sentinel can be lonely and unrewarding. Time will turn that around.

    1. Jon – No apologies necessary. A small tip – the reason for low moods in winter is thought to be from low vitamin D levels of sunlight; lack of sufficient vitamin D causes disruptions in all manner of biochemical functions, including neurological functions that can affect mood.. Vitamin D supplements are cheap and do no harm; most people who live in the northern hemisphere are deficient anyway. Might be worth a go for you?

      1. That should have been low vitamin D levels from a lack of sufficient sunlight. Sorry!

      2. By the way, JulesP ir right about vitamin D. Vitamin D deficience is widely spread in the northern hemisphere.
        I sell it and will gladly send you a free sample so you can try and see if it makes you feel better.

      4. Jon, I love your blog and updates! And I saw in an earlier post you were writing about moving to the Canary Islands in the future. As a scandinavian living in the canaries for almost 10 years now, I can highly recommend it!!! I used to have deep winter depresions, but since moving here I have never felt better! Not only for the climate, but also the people, atmosphere, nature and everything. So when time comes, the Canary Islands will welcome you with arms wide open and all the worries in the world will disappear! More or less… 😉

      5. Jon – your body MAKES vitamin D on exposure to sunlight; only a very limited amount can come from food (eat lots and lots of oily fish). You will struggle to achieve this one with diet alone, as even in daylight, the intensity of the sun in the northern hemisphere is too low to enable the body to produce anything near enough in winter months.

        If you are suffering badly from SAD (seasonaly affective disorder) please rethink your views vis a viz supplements on this ONE aspect. It could make a huge difference.

      7. Jon, absolutely no reason for an apology. Your log is a huge success and so useful to many people for many reasons. I empathise with you as to being “under the weather”. This is such a good description as many people suffer from what is now called Seasonal affected Disorder. My Grandmother called it Hibernating Mood. That is exactly what it is. Lack of sunlight and cold temperatures all have an effect on our bodies. We want to curl up and sleep. Every day gets to be hard work. But our modern societies will not let us give our bodies chance to slow down… hence a feeling of depression. I overcome mine with being out of doors for as much as possible. Like Carl says it is a lack of vitamin D which we cannot make for ourselves. Light on your pineal gland triggers the body to manufacture Seratonin this hormone makes you feel energetic and happy, As Night falls the lack of light on the pineal gland triggers the flow of Melatonin, this hormone tells your body it is time to sleep! This is why some people in Northern Latitudes feel lethargic and depressed in Winter. So do try to go out every day for a 30 minute walk or activity. This helps keep your spirits up. It works for me.
        There that’s my motherly bit over!!!
        A very interesting post Jon that keeps us all watching Katla, Bob and other Grumbling Volcanoes.
        Now back to making my Christmas Puddings and a Christmas Cake. The house smells warm and good this cold Frosty morning. 🙂

      8. Jón, your blog is so very good. No need to apology.
        I can understand so very well that bad weather and lack of light make you feel uncomfortable. If you move to Denmark, that will change a lot! More daylight, longer summer, less storms…. when I left Norway for Germany and the Netherlands my life changed a lot. In Norway I felt like being in prison all winter because of the darkness and the cold. Daylight does a lot to you! Something I really love here is the green grass in the winter. A little wonder, when you are used to see only snow and brown rests of dead plants around you. Of course your roots will be there and you will later remember all the good things (like the clean air and the crystal clear water in the mountains) the best.

      9. This is one of the reasons I couldn’t live in those countries so far to the north, I would love to visit all those wonderful countries but I would miss the sunlight in the winter a lot.
        Greetings to all of you from the Canaries, 25 degrees, this our “winter” XD

      10. Jón, I like this blog, too. Thank you for managing it so well.

        Perhaps a daylight lamp and walking on fresh air (e.g. with dog) or riding could do you good.

  3. Jón, hope your mood picks up soon.
    The darkness can really get to you.

    For those who do not live far to the north. When the darkness lifts at 10 in the morning and the sun sets at 2 o’clock in the afternoon you get a bit wonky after a while. You go to work in the dark, you go home in the dark. The circadian clock goes to hell and you just wish to sleep all the time. Personally I make a point of taking a long walk around lunch time to get some light into the eyes, whatever the weather. First sign of light depravation, you start to feel that the apartment gets very dark, even though you have every piece of lighting equipment turned on… and all of a sudden you find yourself looking straight into light-bulbs and stuff.

    1. Yep; light depravation can get quite serious after a while …

      At my former work-place we had a morning briefing lasting about a hour every morning from 0700-0800. During the winter we always had a “day-light-lamp” active to brighten things up. When I quit that job I realized how effective it had been, so I bought one for the breakfast table at home. Works wonders!

      1. Gotta get one of those… In the winter I am zombie in the morning. Hollywood could save a fortune on special effects by putting a cam in my kitchen. 🙂

  4. Thanks so much for this blog, Jon, it really is addictive!

    I notice quakes today are shallower further north in NW Frontera, El Hierro.

  5. Since there is a new blog post I am moving this here.
    I am trying to get better at Spanish while this eruption goes on.
    I just found a name for a place on El Hierro on Lurkings map of cave opening. The name of the place is La Curva.
    If I remember correctly that means [piiip]. Which would be hilarious as a name for the opening of a humid and warm cave. Now I wonder, does it have any other meaning than [bleeep]?
    Or am I all wrong and it only means something totally innocent?

    CaveLurkings map:
    http://i40.tinypic.com/2i7molu.png

    1. Sorry to disappoint you, but it just means the curve. Completely innocent. 🙂
      What you are thinking of is la puta.

      Reminds me of an analogue situation when Italian students in Sweden completely loose it when you invite them to go for a fika. 😀

      1. Or if you are pushing someone in a wheel-chair in Spain and the person shout the swedish equivalent of “Push” (Putta)…

        Curva was a bad word for a part of the female anatomy in another language.

      2. Excuse me for this comment, but perhaps you should see a good doctor and asks him for a psychoanalysis.

      3. If you have a good doctor you can recommend him, please note that we might be many interested. Maybe we can get a discount price or something. Our “illnesses” might be of some kind of common origin… 🙂

      4. Good doctor and psychonalysis, that is an oxymoron.
        You mean that I should visit a witch-doctor, give him a hork-load of money and listen to him explain that my bad spanish is caused by pot-training problems? Hm… Think not 🙂

      5. I remember it right I think it was in polish where the spanish curva had another meaning

      8. Had to chase that for a while before I found the 11:46 🙂

        How come I spend so much time chasing caves? Hm… Perhaps something is wrong with me 😉

      9. Another one to watch out for: Embarazada is NOT the word for embarassed. “Estoy Embarazada” means you’re pregnant. Made that mistake myself many years ago, not only did it kill the conversation stone dead, I’m still hearing about it!

      4. If you wonder because of that, you might have some “surprises” in the future or if you comme to Burfell in 2012… 🙂

  6. Think this is a great blog – keep up the good work!
    There is actually a special type of light bulb for “winter sickness” – but these should not be used more than 1 hour per day. I’ll find you a link if you need it. Where I live the sun is up for only 1 hour around xmas time.

    1. Do you live in Alaska or northern Canada?
      I live around 63 degrees north and I still have about 4 hours of sunlight.
      When I am in England I never see the sun though, but that is because the Brittish have been hiding from the sun since the time of Magna Charta…
      I am soooo looking forward to going so far south that I will never come back during christmas.

      1. Office:
        66* 22’18” N
        12* 11’57” E
        …with some mountains to the south – and costal weather mostly cloudy clear this time of year. Around xmas that means darks days.

      5. Oh Carl! Do get your facts right.
        The Romans tried to encourage sunshine by worshipping Mithras, long before the Magna Carta….. I believe also the Neolithic and Bronze age peoples carved rounded “Sun” marks on stones not to mention building Stonehenge to encourage the sun to stay a while in our rainy country :)……. Maybe I should try doing Sun dances in the rain…… Hmmmm! ..I am getting ideas. 🙂

      6. Nono:
        Article one of MC, if it is sunny, find a foreigner and stone him. Article two of MC, if it is not raining, tar and feather a foreigner. Article 3, if it is above 17C, force feed a foreigner mint sauce. Article 4, if 1 – 3 is not the case, find nearest foreign neighbour and use the next few hours telling him the entire story of Culloden and the importance of Culloden on your heritage (Only applies if you are the Umptenth Earl of Groovy-upon-Stoke).
        But the beer is good 🙂

      8. That’s only because it is more than likely actually necessary during the english winter but many less enlightened Brits have not yet learnt that you can not practise such customs whilst holidaying abroad!!

        Hope you felt better, Jon, and had a giggle at this morning’s chat. Boys will be boys! (Quite normal and most amusing.)

      9. Funny I’m born close to the 63 degrees north near the middle of the country close to one of our greatest lakes translated to “Big sea”. I do still remember the winter time 4h of daylight.
        4h is bad but up far north with no daylight at all.
        Oh and thanks Jon for the blog it has given me alot of joy and knowledge. Back to lurking for me…..

      1. For the program, it would be cool if it started in the afternoon and then went over into a bbq to finally end up in a pure scandal. I try to convince my lady to make family holidays in some farm or something, then I could join for the “decent part” and leave with the kiddies before they see too much of the reality of human nature…
        Can you go to Burfell with a “common 4×4”?

      2. As far as I know there is a country road/seervice road up to the Dalek.

        Sounds like a good plan, I am trying to get a lecture in the afternoon about icelandic volcanos, so I guess the human reality show will be a lot later after BBQing dinner. So afternoon early evening should be really kiddy proof.

      4. Well, rest assured that I am not going to try to drive my Koeniggsegg up there… 🙂

        I think I will rely on someone local driving me up since I have never driven a 4×4 in terrain like that. I am actually a coward regarding driving cars. Which begs the question of why the hell I bought my car to beginn with. Mid life crisis I guess.

      5. Oh, the Koeniggsegg wasn’t a joke… 🙂 But, eh, you didn’t drive it following the running women in Africa, did you?

        I love the idea to leave home and go wherever I want. Turn the ignition key in front of my house and ending in Burfell sounds like a little bit of “soft adventure” that would adorably contrast with my efficiency based everyday life.

      6. Sadly it is not a joke.
        It is my once in a lifetime stupid thing. My neighbour didn’t stop teasing me for not having a car, so I went out to get a car. Long story short, I decided to get a Swedish car as a joke on him since he might be the most Brittish person alive (see thing about Culloden above). And since there is only one car maker left in Sweden… So, as a first car, and by Godabunga, the last car in my life… I hate cars.

        I didn’t have a car back then, so in the end she ran away from me, coincidentally she ran so fast that she won a marathon to get away from me. I do wonders sometime 😉

      9. The track up to Burfell is rather steep and is not maintained.
        OK in summer on 4×4 with a low transfer gear and experienced driver.
        If , by the dalek you mean the glassfiber dome, it is an repeter from the old RHI analog seismo system.

        We used to call them “Happa tappi! which would giggle as happy cork but meaning something like ” Lucky Tip”
        Vappar kappinn vífi frá,
        veldur knappur friður.
        Happatappinn honum á
        hangir slappur niður.
        (Sorry Una Can..)

      10. Ah, sh… My 4×4 is not really hardcore (no low transfer gear, but locking differential and 436 nm take you quite far), and it would be bad to overestimate my driving capabilities. I think among the tourists you already have enough idiots in these matters…
        Good to know from some icelander. Thanks for the info.

      11. Oh my Godabunga, hope nobody get a good translation of that poem.

        So I guess we will need someone from the local crowd to help us up the Mountain.
        I thought that the Dalek ontop of Búrfell was a communications thingy from the text on the ruv cam site?

      12. Yes Comm. but for a low power 100mW 460 mhz telemetry from the old , now defunct seismometers at Hekla, Jökulheimar and Vonarskard.
        Thos happatappis where away from the high power epqt. on Burfell ,vatnsfell and more , Holding the Yagis inside free from Ice.

        The webcam is in main Communiction on Burfell is a house w two large towers.
        Ill try to find some picture to post

  8. Jon, Sorry you are not very well. As Carl says do your best to get some daylight during the day. This is especially true if you work a lot in an office or with computers. Fresh air helps a lot too.

    I had not noticed any problems with the quality of this blog; it is excellent. We really appreciate the effort you put into it.

  9. Forgot to tell about Norway: The last time I visited my mother in winter I woke up at night without my feather bed around me. I pulled it towards me, but it was stuck, and to my big suprise it was frozen to the wooden wall…..

  10. Sorry the lack of sun is getting to you Jón . Believe me we know how you feel here in NW Scotland. The hours of light are short enough but when most of that is poor quality light because of endless rain and storms it might as well be night.
    Nevertheless I would never want to move south ever again. Get some hens, wehave 130 of them, all pets, and I guarantee you they are better than TV. That said some of them occasionally come in to watch TV with us.

    1. Brian I have a wonderful vision of you sitting in a wee croft surrounded by your Hens:) Do you talk to them? My neighbours think it’s hilarious because I talk to the wild birds, squirrels… and yes! My plants too!! 🙂

    2. NE Scotland same ! Hens ? Ditto – we’ve three and my daughter can often be seen wandering the garden with one tucked under her arm. We raised one from chick in the house – called her tweets. Would follow us everywhere – even on a walk. Dog, two cats and pet hen, altogether !
      I was just discussing ‘SAD’ with my wife today, as we were sitting out in the glorious sunshine. Get as much of it as you can – all comments re sunlight are very valid here Jon.
      Great Blog though !

  11. What’s with the 3.8 out in the middle of nowhere under the seafloor at 02.34 and with no depth?

  12. The blogs have been fine Jon. JulesP is right by the way. I have been researching vitamin D for two years now and can confirm that you will benefit greatly. 1000mg capsules of cod liver oil (one a day) are great as you get the other benefits of Omega 3s etc as welll as building up your vitamin D levels over time. As well as helping to ward off depression it is crucial in keeping seasonal respiratory ailments at bay.

  13. Its at a seamount that is a volcano sticking up 500 metres from the seafloor. But it is still 3500 metres from the surface.
    The distance is about 100km from El Hierro so it is probably not related. My guess is a collaps in that volcano and that it is not related to any volcano-activity.

  14. Looks like the may have rescaled CHIE at 10.53. The spectral analysis stops at that point.

    1. What is with this IGN changes of the tremor plots. They have done this regularly and it makes it harder to know if there are fluctuation in the eruption or not.

  15. It’s a dangerous path you’re taking Jon. You gotta turn that attitude around before you fall deeper. When I graduated from school I did the same thing. Even though I started to earn a lot of money I felt like Karl Pilkington talking to Ricky Gervais. As soon as I told myself to change attitude everything turned to the better.
    It’s all about having the right mindset. Be happy go lucky 🙂

    1. It is not my attitude that is the problem. The current situation is however does. But I am going to get out of it.

      I have a goal and I am going to get to it, as I did before.

      2. I bet you can find a nice house on one of the Canary Islands these days for a good price. I’ve heard La Restinga might be a good place, plenty of sun year round, view to the south, big jacuzzi nearby.

        Stay positive.

    1. It´s curious. My mother has some of them and they are differents. The exterior are black and inside are white.

    2. really nice examples. It is a very good example for magma mixing. As you have read in former posts there are residues of ol magma in dikes and pockets. Due to slowly cooling you get a crytallisation of more dark (mafic) minerals which have a higher melt temeperature. The residual magma get richer and richer in silica (SiO2) and volatiles like CO2 and H2O. Rhyolitic magma is able to absorb several % of water without outgassing at a temperature of 700 to 800 degrees and it is still molten, but with high viscosity.
      When you get injection of new basaltic magma with a temperature of 1200 degrees it will not mix directly with these old residues due to their viscosity, but it will heta up them, fracture them and blow them up to a foam due to outgassing, especially when you release pressure too, what is done when a volcano erupts of course.
      The white colour is due to many reflective surfaces in the “foam”. When you melt this stuff, i guess you will have a light brown colour.
      Probably the most of this stuff is volcanic glass with a chemical composition of trachyte or rhyolite. I would like to see a chemical analysis of this, not mixed with the dark crusts which are probably more basaltic. Such an analysis can be done easily within one day (x-ray fluorescence). X-ray difractometry could provide us with mineralogical composition of this material and one can use the same sample to do both.

      1. Now that is what I have been waiting for: someone who really can understand what ‘ Little Bob’ might be coughing up and can explain it to me in a way that I can comprehend.

        Thanks for your input!

      2. Thanks for your feedback.I have thought several times during this episode that there are many speculations but not at all as many facts that we could get. So the question always was, “What is this little thing throwing up?”
        When you take a close look at these pictures it is rather obvious that it is nothing very special, but i really would appreciate to have the detailed chemical composition of the white foam and the dark crust.
        If you look at the chemical and mineralogical composition of rocks, and in this case of course volcanic material, you are able to say where it has its origin and what it has gone through during its way up to the surface. I really miss the old lab equipment of my time as student.

      3. I don’t particularly miss the lab but sometimes I wish I could have taken my Siemens Diffractometer and software with me when I had to retire. I could have set it up in the garage and run a nice little private service for amateur rock hunters.

      4. Siemens Diffractometer with software sounds very familiar to me 🙂
        but the software and hardware was sloooooooow
        1985

    2. Muy interesante, el sitio tiene una grande riqueza de informacion! Muchas gracias!

      Very interesting, it contains a wealth of information on the Canarian Islands, explorations, history, and there’s a version of the site in English too, with digitalized works from English, Spanish, German, French etc. as well

  18. Current Volcanic Islands (AVCAN)
    The tremor has changed, has since shortly before 11:00 am much more volatile, with sharp rises and falls like a few days ago, and explosions that saturate the especrograma, you may be doing it again pulses, which can raise the water several feet as the other day … (Enrique)

  19. @ Charley: you do remember right (but this is not a topic I expect to be commenting on here on this blog!).
    Jón and others: I can fully understand the problems of winter in northerly latitudes. Here (on the Baltic coast of Poland) the days are not as short as yours, but the winters are often very long, with dreary months of black and white, whith wndless snow and ice. In my experience, Carl is right – get outside whatever the weather – natural light helps and so does exercise, (particularly if too much time is spent at the computer).

  21. The Black Dog is a mutual friend of ours. Always waiting in the next room, sometimes you have to let him in to placate him and shut him up before he leaves you alone to get on with things again. Go easy on yourself on these dark days. Your work is great, you have many disciples! I alone have learned more from your blog than what I ever did at school. Keep up the good work, and I sincerely raise a glass of right good health to you 🙂 Cheers!

  23. Source: Canarias7

    The volcano gives off a “big rock”

    Renewed eruption in El Hierro with a bubble of gas and ash on the surface of the sea of calm, although smaller than that of Saturday. Witness the fact they describe as a “huge stone “-a pyroclastic-that was thrown. The Civil Guard evacuated urgently to those neighbors who had come to La Restinga to collect belongings, reports Rosa Rodriguez from El Hierro.

  24. Some type of spike in Iceland. Not sure what it is. But there are no large earthquakes taking place from what I can tell at the moment. This spike is strongest around Bárðarbunga volcano in Iceland.

      1. The water looks to have gone more brown in colour. I speculate that the eruptive material is changing slightly.

      2. much possible, when new basaltic magma has assimilated or pushed out most of the old residuals. There might not be much of old magma in the dikes and pockets under the island.

      1. Nor are their users it seems. If this is HI-04 they are talking about, it was recording inflation before it went off line so they would have had their eyes on it.

    2. Giggle translation

      The Canary Islands government has lost some of the data collected in recent days on the submarine eruption suffered by the island of El Hierro, the most important volcanic phenomena occurred in the islands and Spain in the last 40 years. After a computer error, the technicians of the regional administration are working to try to recover the data processed by GNSS stations (“Global Navigation Satellite System”, its acronym in English), which constitute the Canary Active Geodetic Network, owned by the Executive regional level. In El Hierro, the station is located in the municipality of La Frontera.

      The alarm will go off on October 31. On November 1 was a holiday and it was on day 2 when informed of the Canarian Government departments involved in the control. GNSS artifacts had stopped issuing information from the Receiver Independent Exchange Rinex-a text file format that stores the data, the main server on days 28, 29 and 30 as a result of “a failure to update the system “according to official documents. While the service is operational again, the staff continues to work to recover the lost information, “which is of vital importance for the analysis of seismic activity detected on the island of El Hierro, ‘reads an official communication to that ABC has had access. Regional government sources claimed last night that there were problems in one of the stations and it is not possible to determine the amount of information lost.

      During the volcanic crisis, information issued by the GNSS stations has been fundamental to the study and monitoring of earthquakes and deformation suffered by the island. Organizations like the National Geographic Institute and the Institute of the Canary Islands volcanological have worked with these data.

    3. Ya lo leí, estuven de fiestaaaa!!! Acaban de regalar unas restingolitas a los príncipes en Londres, mientras que los científicos siguen peleándose, sin que nadie no sabe que son ni el contienen las mismas …

      I read that already, they went partying! And the just presented some restingolitas to the Spanish crown prince and his wife in London, while the scientist continue fighting each other without anybody knowing what they are nor what they contain. “Only in espain”

      2. As i said before, analysis could be done in one day. “fighting each other without anybody knowing what they are nor what they contain.” is absolutely not necessary.

  27. Reports on twitter from canariesnews, that Bob is now spurting lava and steam. Residents of La Restinga being urgently evactuated.

    1. From http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=237181:

      “The volcano gives off a “big rock”

      By midmorning on Monday has revived the eruption in El Hierro with a bubble of gas and ash on the surface of the sea of ​​calm, although smaller than that of Saturday.

      Witness the fact they describe as a “huge stone”-a pyroclastic-that was thrown. The Civil Guard urgently evacuated neighbors who had come to La Restinga to collect belongings.

      Canarian Government sources point out that the Civil Guard was limited to accelerate the disposal of the neighbors who are housed in the residence of Valverde and at that time were in town.

      There have been banned from the neighbors come to town to pick up belongings at home, but very few people make use of this possibility during Monday.

      The Director General of Security and Emergency of the Canary Islands, Juan Manuel Santana, said Monday at a news conference that residents of La Restinga can access the town during the day but must sleep outside the town.

      The director of National Geographic Institute (IGN) in the Canary Islands, José María Blanco, has ruled that there is a second eruption in the Northwest Frontier, according to data available to intsrumentales. He emphasized that only recorded eruption in the sea south of La Restinga and ensure that no rash northwest of Frontera, as demonstrated by scientific data.

      IGN has so far used a GPS system to locate the source eruption. White announced that in the coming days is expected the installation of buoys measuring instruments in the sea to triangulate and locate in a more accurate focus the exact location and its distance from the coast El Hierro.

      The scientist has said on Monday that the large gas bubuja emerged from the sea on Saturday and what happened on Monday are episodes of rash and “a new phase.” “

  28. Jon, I find breaking up the time involved helps, instead of thinking of how long until its over, I have landmarks inbetween. In 6 weeks time the days start to get longer! In 7 weeks Christmas will be over, and so on!

    My captcha on this was fixed mysick?!

    1. That should allow some calculation of heat flux into the geysir’s water.
      Wonder what its area is?

  31. http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=237209

    Scientists of the Institute and for renewable energies (ITER) of Tenerife have detected a difference of more than 11 ° c between the temperature of the water in the calm sea and South of La Restinga, which is observed in El Hierro underwater volcanic eruption.
    As it has today indicated Monday a statement of the Cabildo de Tenerife, to which belongs the ITER, observations show higher abnormal temperatures associated with the most obvious surface manifestation of the underwater eruption that is recorded in the South of La Restinga, in El Hierro.
    In particular, the difference in temperature in the shallow marine environment South of La Restinga using thermal cameras in aerial mobile position is the largest detected until today: more than 11 degrees Celsius.
    The water temperature in the surface environment of the calm sea – which is not affected intensively by the eruptive activity – has been 23.9 degrees Celsius, while the registration of the temperature of the water in the area where there is the most obvious surface manifestation of the underwater eruption reaches the 35.3 degrees.
    This difference in temperature in the surface of the calm sea environment clearly reflects an important flow of heat as a result of the underwater eruption, adds.
    The measures were made yesterday with the collaboration of the Civil Guard helicopter service within the framework of an agreement of collaboration between the Volcanológico Institute of the Canary Islands and the air Sector of the Civil Guard in the Islands to strengthen the geophysical program (Thermometry and thermography) for volcanic surveillance.

    1. You got any idea what kind of heat that it would take to bring that water up 11 C?

      There is some serious stuff happening on the bottom near Restingas because even though the sea was/is calm, the current isnt. The tea pot is set on high.

    2. Very rough guesstimate of heat flow into geysir:
      If bottom sea water is 10C , geysir at 35C, diameter 1m ?? , length of erupted column 1000m ?? and period between burps 10 minutes??, then heat transfer rate in conduit is:
      25x 3.14x 0.5 x 0.5 x 1000 x 4.2 x 10^9 Joules in 10 min
      = 8.2 ^10 in 10 min
      = 1.4^8 Joules per second
      1watt is 1 Joule per sec
      140MW
      So what are the dimensions of the geysir?? so we can refine the guess.

      1. B$$$$er,
        Ignore that above.
        If bottom sea water is 10C , geysir at 35C, diameter 1m ?? , length of erupted column 1000m ?? and period between burps 10 minutes, then heat transfer rate in conduit given specific heat water 4.2 Joules/ml/K :
        25x 3.14x 0.5 x 0.5 x 1000 x 4.2 x 10^9 Joules in 10 min
        =8.2 ^13 J in 10 min
        =8.2 ^12 J per min
        =1.4^11 Joules per second
        1watt is 1 Joule per sec
        1.4^5 MW
        140 GW
        That cant be right – 70 nuclear power stations?

        GW

      2. IGNORE ABOVE AGAIN
        Serious brain fade here, third time lucky:
        There are 10^6 ml in cubic metre not 10^9 AAagghhhh.

        So 140MW
        Thats better!!

        Any better guesses out there??

      4. Peter, you are probably the only one trying to prove that there is no eruption. That not withstanding:
        First of all, the eruptive vent is larger than 1 sqaure metre, secondly it is less than 50 metres from the crater top to the surface.

        Why do you invent theory after theory to explain that there is no eruption? After all we are talking about a very normal, even a bit boring, standard sub-aquatic volcanic eruption.

      5. I know that the diameter of the vent of the geiser is 200 meters diameter, 7o meters deeph, and possible another new vent at the east of La Restinga at 7 kms from the coast.

  32. Jon-I recommend Vitamin C in the form of orange juice added to a shot of vodka at 7 p.m. at the local pub daily and-Chase girls. This thing almost has a life of its own and we are posting enough up that it can survive at least 48 hours between without any problems. The world economy is in a tatters at best and I think that its a play that hasnt had the final curtain yet. When it does, we all may be playing video games.

    As for posting up sometimes its better anyway-I think I had to ask you to start a new thread two days ago because I couldnt keep up because the bloddy thing was at 1072 posts then. If Katla goes well, Iceland might not be such a good place to hang out anyway, Denmark either.

    I feel like I am surrounded at times here in Memphis, even with the temps being in the 70’s and very sunny. Its not depression you are feeling… tis but frustration at things not going the way you want them to. Believe me brother you are not the only one feeling that right now. Set your goals a bit shorter, set fewer goals. Complete on the ones you do set and you will feel much better.

    If that doesnt work, then go down and grab the first politician you can find and beat the crap out of them. You will feel MUCH better then.

    LOL !

  33. Does anybody know the url from the Cabary Islands Guardia Civi – they have regular great images, because they are flying daily with a helicopter in the immediate vicinity of Bob

    1. Some calibration of scale on the images would be useful – see power guesstimate of geysir above.
      Peter

  35. OT, but it appears there are 181 injection wells (fracking) in the same county as the 5.6Mw Oklahoma quake(s). Interesting considering the similar swarm (still ongoing) in Arkansas, where fracking is also suspected as being a contributor.

    1. Yeah, I really don’t think we could generate a 5.6 with fracking. More conspiracy BS.

    2. And all the other counties? I believe over 1 million shale-gas wells have been drilled so far with associated fracking in the USA. If you want to show correlation, please don’t stop there and show causation as well without just suggesting scaremongering things.

  36. Lets do better a bit on the translations… Geez they give me a headache…

    The Canary Islands government has lost some of the data collected in recent days on the submarine eruption near the island of El Hierro, the most important volcanic phenomena occurred in the islands and Spain in the last 40 years.

    After a computer error, the technicians of the regional administration are working to try to recover the data processed by GNSS stations (“Global Navigation Satellite System”, its acronym in English), which constitute the Canary Active Geodetic Network and owned by the regional government. In El Hierro, the station is located in the municipality of La Frontera.

    (Computer error? Come on guys you spilled coffee into the laptop, or el gato started across the keyboard)

    The alarm went off on October 31. November 1 was a holiday and it was on day 2 when the Canarian Government departments were finally aware of the problem. GNSS stations had stopped issuing information from the Receiver Independent Exchange (RINEX) -a text file format that stores the data on the main server on days 28, 29 and 30 as a result of “a failure to update the system “according to official documents.

    (Ok,ok, okay, they were in the middle of an eruption, they were tired and they didnt have a checklist. You know for me, they are doing okay because no one is dead yet)

    While the service is operational again, the staff continues to work to recover the lost information, “which is of vital importance for the analysis of seismic activity detected on the island of El Hierro, ‘reads an official communication to ABC.

    Regional government sources claimed last night that there were problems in one of the stations and it is not possible to determine the amount of information lost.

    (Fair enough. They found the problem, they fessed up and now they are trying to fix it. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians I think. And a VERY divided command on that island for structure. I dont think they are at all cohesive and decisions are made late, and are minimal when they do-IMO)

    During the volcanic crisis, information issued by the GNSS stations has been fundamental to the study and monitoring of earthquakes and deformation on the island. Organizations like the National Geographic Institute and the Institute of the Canary Islands volcanological work with these data to produce findings.

    For my read folks they are way behind the curve and that will change if this gets much more hairy. Local governments have for years been planning for this eventuality and well it just didnt ever happen. Now it has. They likely still have the data on the instruments themselves (Theres your data drop outs Lurk, Robert, Carl-totally explained).

    Might be as simple as running out to each instrument and hooking up a laptop for a data download.

    So whats the loss? Probably minimal because the bigger stuff has been happening in the last few days. Cant see whats happening for a few days is like hitting a swarm of bugs on the windshield, wash it off, and press on. And they are doing a decent job of keeping up with the volcano and it might be too early for an evacuation but if it suddenly changes, they wont have time or the capability to do it at all.

    1. HI-04 I might run to get a data download (if it is where we think it is) but may be not for La Restinga. However, they can get data from Nagoya’s network.

    2. Worse, there was a holiday, and in Espain they like to fiesta, so there was no one about…

      quote:

      Las alarmas saltaron el 31 de octubre. El 1 de noviembre fue festivo y el 2 se comunicó a los departamentos del Gobierno de Canarias implicados en el control. Las estaciones GNSS habían dejado de emitir la información de los Rinex –Receiver Independent Exchange, un formato de ficheros de texto que almacena los datos- al servidor principal durante los días 28, 29 y 330 de octubre a consecuencia de “un fallo en la actualización del sistema”, según documentos oficiales.

      The alarms went off the 31th of october. The 1st nov. there was a holiday and the 2nd they communicated it to the departments of Gobcan implicated in the control. The GNSS stations had stopped emitting the information of RINEX – Receiver Independent Exchange, a format of text files that store the data – on the main serverdurante during the days of 28, 29 and 30 october, due to “an system update error”, according to official documents. …

      http://www.libertaddigital.com/sociedad/2011-11-07/canarias-pierde-datos-vitales-de-la-erupcion-de-el-hierro-por-un-error-informatico-1276440614/

    3. This is a prime example of the difference between a technician and an engineer, and the (engineers evil overlord, the researcher.)

      The effect of that data loss is piecemeal to overcome. Preserve what you can, but if a disk write failed, and you need the disk, kiss the data goodbye. Keep going.

      Changes that are occurring now are whats important. I’m pretty sure the residents really give a #### about what happened back on the 28th – 30th.

      You can work through a data hole, what happened then is a little vague, but it’s just a blip. Get the system back online and stay focused on how it’s evolving.

    3. Too me, this seems to be at Krafla, Hlídarfjall to the right in the distance.

      But, perhaps Carls knows better.

      1. I thought of Krafla, too. This is the last bigger fissure eruption which happened in Iceland. And the lava is still pretty black with no vegetation on it. This indicates that its not very old – the newest lava at Krafla is from the beginning of the 80s.

      4. The imagery of Krafla is stunning. It feels totally otherworldly walking around on the black lava.
        Considering that this was a small rifting fissure eruption (for being Iceland), it kind of put it in perspective how a fresh lava-field from Eldgja/Laki/Veidivötn would look like. Laki is rather to mossy nowadays to have that same Blackness to it. On the other hand, Laki is to big to grasp, at least for my poor shaggy head.

      5. Its even more stunning when you do this after some rain. Then the earth will peacefully steam at a lot of places.

      6. It was bone dry when I was there. When I did Eldgja, Lakí and Veidivötn this summer it was raining for 5 days straight. I got a cold like you would not believe. Sleeping in a tent was not a good idea.

      1. I like the land rover with “ARSE” written down the side of it- were the team from Top Gear inside it or something I wonder? 🙂

  38. I would be happy if they just changed they crap they were sticking into the ground with fracking. I think it can be done safely but there have been problems just about everywhere they have done it.

    Being able to ignite the gas coming out of your faucet is great party entertainment.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYJj-1jNOxE&feature=related

    Thats the reason they call it a hot tube?

    1. Cancel that it was just some missing data that was filled in with the next update…

  40. On AVCAN Facebook someone posted a link to a webcam in El Pinar overlooking the sea around the volcano. Not the best quality and the volcano is behind the mountain, but at least its a beginning and better than nothing. Great initiative by that person though 🙂

    http://www.ustream.tv/channel/el-hierro1

  41. Brilliant and in time for Bobs surfacing hopefully. We are spoiled these days, remember when we had to wait for pictures on TV, days even weeks later…

  42. Meanwhile the earthquake activity beneath Lagoa do Fogo on São Miguel, Azores, persists. It might look small scale on the following map, but keep in mind that these are only the M1.5+ earthquakes, it does not show all the small earthquakes that might occur during these swarms.

    This is definitely a volcano to keep an eye on, as it’s historical eruptions have been pretty large, up to VEI5. Also, this volcano is very close to human population, who are not at all aware of the risks.

    Earthquake map:
    http://www.cvarg.azores.gov.pt/seismic/index.html

    Lagoa do Fogo volcano (GVP):
    http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1802-09=&volpage=erupt

      1. Well, it’s not possible to say with the little data we have. But it is quite coincidental if these were all tectonic earthquakes. This part op São Miguel rarely experiences tectonic earthquakes, which do often occur far south-east or west of the island.

    1. …..And the bad weather is just about to close in. At least the mag 2 and above quakes will get through I think, but we will loose the lesser quakes to noise.
      The tremor graphs are showing the noise of the weather moving up from the South.

  45. Yes but all very shallow at katla, plus a bit stormy there with rather warm temperatures both on the ground and at 850mb so possibly ice melting and shifting is a contributer to those shallow quakes. Johns heli gone quite crazy too but again probably weather related although of course someone being there could probably confirm better. Forecast to be rather warm in Iceland for the whole of this week ( should i have said mild for the season) Warm 850mb flow too so snow will be less likely too.

  47. I’m sorry to hear you are down Jon. But this time of year far north is not good for any person’s mental health.
    I normally work on the bus to and from work. But not today, I slept both ways. I told my kids that darkness had its grip on me, that scared them 🙂
    When the snow shows up it will be easier living again at least for me. Right now it is pitch black up here in Västerbotten, Sweden.

    No matter what you are doing a great job with this blog!

  48. Update 07/11 – 18:09 UTC :
    – Joke Volta sends a message that the size of the jacuzzi is constantly changing at the moment (she can see the jacuzzi now from her garden at El Pinar)
    – The webcam they have installed at El Pinar is of NO use as only big eruption may be seen with it. We need uregntly an HD webcam which can eventually be directed by Raymond or somebody of AVCAN, in other words skilled people.

    Update 07/11 – 17:57 UTC :
    The whirlpool activity is still very strong and so is the harmonic tremor graph who is still saturated. The graph shows almost continuous submarine explosions. The current activity is needed to feed at least 3 active vents who are spewing magmatic material into the sea. Sometime later today or later this week, on condition that the current activity continues, the explosive phase or Capelinho’s / Surtseyan phase will start.

  49. A computer error loses the Canary Island Government data on the volcanic eruption of El Hierro

    DirectorioEl iron
    Canary Islands Government
    Canary active geodetic network
    Global Navigation Satellite System

    VALVERDE (EL HIERRO), 7 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS)-

    A computer error have been losing the Canarian Government part of the data collected during the last few days on the volcanic eruption in the waters of El Hierro, according to published ABC quoting official documents.

    In this way, and according to the newspaper, technicians from the regional executive work to recover the information processed by the stations of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) that make up the active geodetic network of the Canary Islands (belonging to the Canary Islands Government).

    This computer failure causes should be an error in the update of the system that processes the data, so on 28, 29 and 30 October artifacts of the GNSS stopped issuing information of the Receiver Independent Exchange Rinex – format of text files which stores the data to the primary server.

    For its part, the Canarian Government pointed out that problems occurred in one of the stations and that the volume of lost information cannot be determined.

  50. Simply “Merci Jon”, you’re one of my serious reference to follow volcanoes (I’m geophysicist, but not in volcanology…).

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