Posted on by Jón Frímann

Increased eruption activity in El Hierro volcano

I was going to post this yesterday. But I fell a sleep at 17:00 UTC and I didn’t wake up until 03:00 UTC.
*******

The eruption in El Hierro volcano continues as it has been doing for past few weeks with little change. The first eruption vent that did open south of El Hierro Island has continued to erupt. But so far no Island has formed and it is unclear if it is going to form, as the depth is great in this area. Since yesterday around 06:00 UTC the harmonic tremor has been increasing. But this suggests that new vents have opened up in the south eruption area. I got some pictures of that yesterday in the email. But they did not show anything new in my view. Thanks to the readers how did send me those pictures.

The current fluctuation in the harmonic tremor from El Hierro suggests that magma is on the move in the north part of El Hierro Island. Both off the coast and maybe inland on the Island where earthquakes have been taking place. It is impossible to know how this is going to develop during the next few hours to days. As that depends on the rock structure of El Hierro Island and earlier eruptions.

Earthquake activity

During the past two weeks the earthquake activity have been growing in the North-west part of El Hierro Island. The reason why this is happening is that a new fissure is about to open in this area. As I have mentioned before in earlier blog posts. When and where is impossible to know for sure. The largest earthquake so far took place this morning, it size was ML4.0 with the depth of 20 km. But this is the automatic data from IGN. This pattern of earthquake activity is most likely going to continue during this eruption process in El Hierro volcano. Since the eruption type here is a fissure eruption.

It is worth noting that earthquakes in once place does not mean that the eruption is going to happen in that place. As the magma can travel in dikes all over the El Hierro Island and show it self anywhere on the Island it self. So the general risk is high in my opinion. The only action that can be taken is to be prepared for sudden eruption of new vents on El Hierro Island. Since there is a good amount of magma on the move inside El Hierro volcano.


The harmonic tremor in El Hierro at 08:54 UTC (when picture is saved). The spikes are earthquakes, and harmonic tremor spikes are the “waves” in the harmonic tremor pattern. Copyright of this picture belongs to Instituto Geográfico Nacional.

Update 1:

* When I wrote this blog post. This two earthquakes took place.

1109584 02/11/2011 08:37:11 27.9267 -18.1084 3 1.7 mbLg NW FRONTERA.IHI
1109582 02/11/2011 08:36:00 27.5986 -17.9594 1 1.9 mbLg S EL PINAR.IHI

This are the most shallow earthquakes that I have seen so far. From the depth it is possible a magma has found a clean path to surface in this two areas. Sadly there is no map. So I am not sure where this earthquakes took place in El Hierro volcano.

Update 1b: The earthquake have been revised. Now the depth is 9 km for the ML1.7 and 22km for the ML1.9.

The shallow earthquake.

1109584 02/11/2011 08:37:11 27.9304 -18.1107 9 1.7 mbLg NW FRONTERA.IHI [+]

I am going to post more information when I know more on what is taking place in El Hierro.

Blog post updated at 11:24 UTC on 2 November, 2011

1,078 Replies to “Increased eruption activity in El Hierro volcano”

  2. Hmmmm, typed in the coordinates of this last 2.4 quake into Google earth and it definitely shows it under land close to the shore in El golfo area, also a little shallower at 18km unless that changes later.

    1109734 02/11/2011 16:27:14 27.7551 -18.0590 18 2.4 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+]

  3. Same for the 16km deep tremor – BUT – 16km is still too deep to indicate anything precise, I think. It’s not like Katla where the quakes happen under the caldera, and the magma heads straight up – as others have noted, the magma chambers under el Hierro are positively labyrinthine.

  4. From AVCAN:

    IMPORTANT NOTICE: Due to the interest generated, access to all of IGN seismograms from your own IGN, have asked that we remove the direct link to your site, because their server was slowing down. From AVCAN, we agreed to it, because now we can not be an obstacle in the investigations being carried out, for scientists and technicians who are unable to access vital information. We hope you all understand. Greetings from AVCAN. Thank you.
    As was suggested – servers have been inundated.

    2. Its’ your ” third world siesmic alert infrastructure” according to Prof Perez talking to El Pais a month ago.

  6. IMPORTANT WARNING::: PLEASE DO NOT USE THE LINKS TO THE SERVERS OF IGN.

    THE IGN ASKED SO THEMSELVES>

    SINCE THE SERVERS WITH ADDITIONAL STATIONS WERE OPENED FOR THE PUBLIC, THEY BEGIN TO OVERLOAD. IGN NEEDS THEM NOW MORE THAN EVER FOR KEEPING THEIR EYE ON THE CRISIS.

    Via the AVCAN Group on Facebook

    1. a girl just said in avcan : The best way to solve this traffic problem is to mirror the seismic data and give the links of the mirrored site to the public.

    2. This does not happen in Iceland, population: 350,000.
      Spain: population 45,000,000
      The need for immediate information, least of all by residents of Hierro, could and should have been foreseen a month or two ago. Third world indeed.
      IGN need to allow access to the server by Hierro residents, or set up a mirror site pdq.

      1. Things that happen anywhere, I remember a few months ago I cannot access National Hurricane Center site from outside the US during Hurricane Irene on the east coast, they were blocking some traffic from outside.
        Probably they solve this problem in the coming hours or days 😉

  7. I’m sorry, but I’m going to be alarmist again.

    It is looking to me like the line of quakes is now following the west side of the circle, in El Golfo, stretching into a widening and lengthening eliptical rift, and starting to bite into the land as well.

  9. I just email to Ign, telling them how they can fix the problem of traffic.
    But I think to them is indifferent my opinion. It’s exhausting to talk to officials.

    1. I should be careful. If their backs are to the wall and they are short of resources it puts too much stress on them when they are taking important decisions. If you press them too hard they will, in desperation, cut off public access. If you want to have a go, put your pressure on your elected government officials, the ones with time on their hands.

  10. I’m not convinced by a lot of what comes from Spain’s officials, but please, keep it low with too harsh critics. Governmental or administrative units nowadays often have only minimal human resources. The people there sure do what they can, especially the technical and scientific staff. No one, even amongst us, is ready to pay more taxes for employees that wait 50 years just to be ready during one event. Economical reality. We probably regroup more manpower and working hours here than they could even dream of. The politicians who are afraid for their little a… when it’s about taking a decision might be a problem, but keep kind to the staff who works like crazy.

    1. we are in the middle of the election period. No one (politicians) want to take the first step and make a mistake. As we say in Spain : En fin….s

      1. They were in the run up to an election just before the eruption of Mt Pele. Hope IGN has reminded the politicians of this (local and national).

      3. The limits of democracy and electoral systems. Those to chose the political way often are people with very specials personalities, who seek power and need to be the in the center of attention. Not exactly the best mankind has to offer, not exactly the ones capable of thinking about other’s interests – even of they should do exactly that. What are electoral criteria? Intelligence, knowledge, experience, education, empathy, honesty, modesty? Rathe not. It’s more about being loud, egomaniac enough to drown others, ready to lie and bend to lobbies… Expect nothing of them. Technical, scientific staff and lawyers have to work hard ongood frame conditions (laws), that people vote, and that limit the damages politicians can cause, and that forces them to act responsibly. Sounds a little Idealistic… Well, we’re doomed even if Elenin missed us… 🙂

      4. I say this: Draw names from a hat to determine who can be a candidate. This means no career politicians, and no time for politicians to build up a pile of lobbyists. It also means that candidates are the people, not the powerful.

      5. …And another one of those non-tremor blobby things Armand and I were discussing at 18:35.

      6. These are curious because all the energy seems to be at low frequencies around 1Hz. Maybe a large body of gas escaping/being released somewhere.

      7. It is a harmonic tremor spike. The bigger they are, more pressure is on the magma. That in it self might be bad when the magma reaches the surface.

    1. All looks pretty normal to me. Someone’s had a small bonfire lit on the lift for the some time 🙂

    2. I would think they are normal clouds as from the warning the weather people were giving for icreased wave height in the area I should think it may turn stormy.

  14. I checked out the co ordinates for this last M 4.4 quake before I heard of the plea not to use the IGN site.
    I will comply with the request as my needs are minimal in this.
    This last quake appears to be located below the road named Calle de Mattoral NW of Frontera. Please, local people do not take this as a prediction of an eruption right there. The quake is very deep and nobody knows where or when or even if a new vent will occur.
    Also I am not sure that the co ordinates are that accurate. The location was found using Google maps so not the most ultra accurate scientific data.
    http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=27.7891%09-18.0602&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xc6b5f43d3471c4b:0x130340f3db151f10,%2B27°+46'+1.36“,+-18°+1’+50.38″&gl=uk&ei=V5GxTpviNsvB8gOT2omjAw&sa

    Please respect the requests of the scientists at IGN and the local officials who have much on their minds at the moment without the added hassle of critics from countries far away and who may, like myself , be mere onlookers but with the interests of the local citizens foremost in their minds.

    2. Diana, I have found it far better to put the coordinates into google earth if you have it downloaded. You then get a vary accurate placement that is very rarely actually on land.

    3. The position is under the sea (yellow arrow), not at land. Google shows the nearest pint at land: Calle matoral.

    4. Diana
      I think the plea was not to use the tremor plots.
      AVCAN are still linking to IGN….
      Peter

  15. Oh Darn It! Scrap that one too….. just put in the coordinates below into google search yourselves
    27.7891 -18.0602

    1. Don’t forget to check for the green arrow (out in the bay).

      The red arrow is the nearest address that Google found.

    2. Google Earth is also very easy to use for this purpose. Just paste the coordinates, click search, and GE shows the point in the middle of your screen. No arrows with different colours.

      Remember to use the right notation, otherwise you might end up elsewhere.
      27.7891 -18.0602 is OK
      27.7891N 18.0602W is also OK

      1. I was being Lazy Google earth tends to take a while to open up on my PC which is a bit of a dinosaur! 🙂 Then Google Earth tends to suddenly shut down taking other things with it!!!
        Then I get feelings like I want to throw PC out of the window….Sigh! 🙁

  16. 4.4 eh?

    I need finish up and get back to the computer.

    I reccomend that people use AVCAN for parameters… If IGN’s server daemon is stressing that might not be good for us data freaks.

  17. Comment on the importance of Rhyolitic content of the newer magmas from Bob de La Restinga:

    During the last few days there has been some discusion about an article stating that the eruptive periods caused by the hotspot alternates between two Canarian islands, El Hierro one of them. I am below going to put forth a logical chain trying to prove this being wrong for El Hierro, I am also going to try to give some evidence that will change the view on El Hierros eruptive history.

    As we now know have gotten proof from Professor Torrente (I have no problem with stating him as a credible source of evidence, there might be additional evidence from Professor Sagiya, but that proof is third-party derived) that the ejected lava is of a mixed type consisting of both basaltic lavas and rhyolitic lavas of andesitic type.

    As we know from works from, among others, Erik Klemetti, rhyolitic mush takes time to develop. And also, from borehole sampling done by the IDDP we know the fastest recorded time for rhyolites to form. At Krafla rhyolitic mush was allready formed within 25 years.
    From other rhyolitic volcanos we know that the magmas solidify (turn into stone) at a steady rate determined by the size of the magma-reservoir. For a normal volcano with a 3 x 3 x 3 reservoir that would have happened within 500 to 1000 years time depending on the amount of magma compared to the sollid material in that volume.

    Well then, what am I carping about?
    This:
    For there to even exist rhyolites there must have been an eruption during the last 1000 years. Clean and simple.
    Problem is just that we have not seen an eruption there for 2500 years according to GVP.
    So where does that leave us?
    Well, first of all the paper stating the bipolar hotpot eruptive pattern is in serious trouble. Secondly, we are left with eruptions that have happened during the last 1000 years.
    If we look at the sonar-imagery of the area south of La Restinga we can see a lot of cones that does not look eroded at all. So the most likely thing is that there has been several sub-aquatic eruptions in that area fairly lately. And to be honest, without equipment you can not see an sub-aquatic eruption that would be occuring south of the current Bob. At best a fisherman would have seen something, but that would just have become a local tall tale of a boiling sea.

      1. Haha!
        Well, ehm… not much really.

        But it implies that the scientific knowledge of the islands are not as good (or worse) as believed.
        The tenement is that there has been no eruption for 2500 years, and that the eruptions alternate between two island in the chain.
        But to be honest, the only two relevant thing I can think of that has actually anything to do with todays eruption is that we know even less of how it will behave, and that it most likely will be more explosive than suspected.
        But one thing is probably clear, and that is that El Hierro is more active than believed before.

    2. Certainly agree with you that most likely it would stem from previously unrecognized historic sub-aquatic eruptions… but still, would it even need an eruption at all? Why not simply from older dike or chamber intrusions, which just got stuck in the preBob stages?

      1. If there had been no visible un-eroded cones, then I would have gone for the dyke or other intrusions.
        I am though not ruling them out at all. Most likely option is actually both occuring over time.

    3. overlooking the possibility of a failed eruption producing rhyolites ? I don’t think this negates your argument much, however .. or perhaps ElHeirro was already starting to reactivate without sub-ariel eruptions in the last several thousand years ? Or maybe i don’t understand your argument ?

  19. HI EVERYBODY,

    THIS IS A REALY NICE BLOGGER-COMMUNITY.
    I JUST WONDER IF NOBODY OF YOU HEARD ABOUT HAARP AND CHEMTRAILS.

    THIS IS THE HAARP EMISSION OF TODAY:

    http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/cgi-bin/scmag/disp-scmag.cgi

    http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/data/spectrum2/www/hf.html

    ALSO DO YOUR SEARCH ON BENJAMIN FULFORD/JAPAN/TSUNAMI

    THIS IS A LINK ABOUT CHEMTRAILS:

    http://www.morningliberty.com/2011/02/28/top-43-chemtrail-crimes-millions-of-dying-birds-fish-and-animals/

    PLEASE STUDY THIS AND WHEN EVER COMMENT ON IT.

    I SENT HOURS BEFOR THE TSUNAMI HIT JAPAN IN MARCH AN EMAIL TO TOKYO BASED ON THE HAARP ONLINE DATA.

    THEREFOR THE CANARIEN ISSUE FOR ME IS ALSO A BY-PRODUCT OF HAARP’S EMISSION.

    BEST REGARDS, PETER

    SAMANA, R. D.

      4. This is much worse then the normal scaremongerers. 🙁

        I second GeoLocos.
        I think it is time for an autodafé. I will bring the figs, oil and 1kg of rock salt, who will bring the mice?

      7. Carl, that was inspiring. I just tried but couldn’t manage to stand on my head. The flower thing was rather easy as we’re used to get f.cked by governments and scaremongers…

      8. I have found that it is the absolute best way of meditating away lifes troubles. Especially if someone plays the banjo-duel from the movie “Deliverance” on the plastic flowers while doing it. After a while you will be grunting away with words like Wittgenstein, Russel and Quine.

      9. If someone is so seriously crazy, I always want to tickle him until he totlacht particular about their own ideas …
        (Giggle)
        totlacht=”laughing to death” 🙂

      10. You halfkill him with Pizockeli (sorry if written wrong) and I give him the rest with Fondue au Vacherin, is that an idea?

      12. Bist Du night aus GR? So ‘je Art Spätzle/Nudeln, regionale Spezialität. Recht geil, einfach “schwer” wie Sau. 🙂

      18. More Caps Lock = more important 😉
        Do you keep him for our amusement, Jon? This kind of weirdoes can HAARP my shiny metal arse (to borrow my fav quote) 😀

    3. I never have trust in someone who has to write in capital letters. Something strange there methinks.

    4. Some facts instead:

      It takes about 10^14 J of energy to warm up 1 km3 of cloud (100 % humid air) with only 1 degrees of Celsius. HAARP’s RF power is only 3,6 MW. So, HAARP would take over 20 years to exhibit a similar warming effect to the above mentioned cloud (if water could absorp the radiation emitted by HAARP). Additionally, HAARP operating RF frequency is in the range of 2-10 MHz. Anyone using microwave ovens can check, what is the operating range for those. It’s typically 2-3 GHz, a factor of 1000 higher. So, obviously HAARP can not even affect local weather, how can it affect anything far bigger and more energetic?

      The visible trails in the sky called “chemtrails” are basically just water vapour. The jet engine fuels have developed over the years so that their burning products condense easier in the flying altitudes.

  20. AVCAN:
    En la curva de evolución de las energias liberadas acumuladas, es increible, pero solo hoy ha liberado mas energia que todo lo que llevabamos desde el 10/11/2011 y ha vuelto a repetir la pauta de dos seguidos, teoricamente ahora tocaria un poco de media calma durante 12-36h y luego volverá al ataque con igual o mas fuerza si no cambia nada (Deformación, gases, sismos supericiales o tremor). Veremos que es lo que ocurre (Enrique).

    Giggle:
    In the curve of evolution of the energies released accumulated is amazing, but only today has released more energy than all that we had from the 10/11/2011 and has been repeated pattern of two straight, now theoretically would play a little half easy for 12-36h and then return to the attack with equal or greater force if nothing changes (deformation, gases, earthquakes or tremor supericiales). We’ll see what happens (Enrique).

    1. I think that they have issues readjusting scales since they put in Storolfsvoll into the plot. They will fix it soon I think.

      Hekla is unusually quiet right now.

      But what has my hackles up is that Krafla had the largest harmonic spike I have ever seen. And there has been almost constant harmonic tremoring for more than a week now. Shows on all related SILs north of the transverse Graben.
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/kvo.gif

      I think Krafla is pissed at me for saying that Hekla will be the next one to go. If this continous I will soon start to think that Krafla is heading for an eruption. And no, there will not be a lot of earthquakes, Krafla is fairly seismically dead. Behaves a bit like Hekla in that capacity.
      Sorry Krafla, my beat about BBQing my hat naked only goes for Katla 🙂

      1. That’s a pretty nice one indeed! You mean the highest spike by Krafla I guess, because compared to a real eruption, this is a small fart.

      3. I think this is Krafla, and the large one about a week ago was Theistareykir.

        Yes it is still small fart, but it is a large wet and gassy fart for being non eruption.

        I think that rift is having a bit of a problem, according to theory it should have gone back to bed after Krafla-fires, but it seems to be active with inflation of Theistareykir and prolonged harmonic tremorin of Krafla. I guess something will give sooner or later. (10 – 100 years perhaps)

    2. I’ve been following Nabro fairly carefully for a while, about a month ago was the last media mention, it claimed that the vent was still ‘active’ – but it’s been very quiet for a while, it’s either finished – or having a quiescent period.

    1. Reynihlid is on the other side of the transverse Graben that divides both the inner (lava-covered) caldera and the outer of Krafla. The Graben works as a huge mirror reflecting away anything trying to go through.
      In this case it is really good since we with a 100 percent certainty can rule out wind as the factor behind both long term harmonic tremor, and the more short-term harmonic spike. So, therefore we know this is a true harmonic event. Simple logic.

    1. Ask Google with:
      Krafla, Norðurland eystra, Island
      It’s easy to find. In the north of Iceland. Near Myvatn.

      2. Depends on the year. So far this has been slightly less then average. But not as bad as the year 2004. When rocks (large enough to break a windows) where blown in the wind. Along with the tarmac on the road.

        Among everything else that the wind could move.

      3. This can just happen in autumn and winter time in Iceland, and even til May. I remember in the winter 2007/08, there was a container blown from a truck and hit a small car, but the woman in it was lucky and wasn’t injured. It happened on Hafnarmelar between Borgarnes and Mosfellsbær, at the same time I was some kilometers away and turned around in my car, I just couldn’t get through to my work place in Reykjavík. Snow was coming horizontally at me, and me going almost blind. But Islanders understand sth like that, they even have a word for it, it is called “veðurtæft” (hindered by the weather).

      4. Thought this was a special year, with more storms than average. You really need viking blood in your veins to cope with this!

  27. Looking at the latest quakes showing on this AVCAN page it seems to me that the quakes have moved closer to shore and even actually under the island in a few cases. Am I correct in this idea?
    http://www.avcan.org/

    1. Also I had expected that with the 4.4 quake the authorities would have made some moves to evacuate residents from the El Golfo area. Any idea why they wouldn’t have done this at this time?

      1. Because they are still working on the presumption that this will be an effusive only eruption if it happens onland. But with andesitic rhyolites they should remove at least the old, sick and inferm for the time being.
        But do not be worried. Soon Cabilde Armas will anounce the worlds first “Run like hell Photographic Competition”.

        Yes I have back-peddaled, I now think they should start to evacuate people from the most likely areas of eruption.

      2. ” Soon Cabilde Armas will anounce the worlds first “Run like hell Photographic Competition”.”

        LOL! I almost choked on my coffee!

      3. Because the equipment isn’t there?

        “Gestern wurde auch die La Unidad Militär de Emergencias beauftagt, eine Sondereinheit des Militär für Notfälle, mit der Einrichtung von Notquartieren für 2000 Menschen zu beginnen. Diese Einheit ist in Teneriffa stationiert. Bereits gestern Mittag wurden im Hafen von Los Christianos (Teneriffa) 17 LKW mit Zelten und dem notwendigen Zubehör verladen, die am Abend in El Hierro eintrafen. Der zweite Schiffstransport soll heute folgen.
        Diese 2000 zusätzlichen Notunterkünfte sollen zu den bereits vom Roten Kreuz vorgehaltenen und eingerichteten Unterkünften installiert werden. Die Gesamtkapazität würde dann für 4000 Menschen ausreichen. Als zentralen Ort hat man den Raum Valverde ausgewählt. ”
        http://elhierro1.blogspot.com/2011/11/el-hierro-vulkan-zuspitzung-der-lage.html

        Goggle translation:
        “Yesterday was also the La Unidad de Emergencias beauftagt military to begin a special unit of military emergency, with the establishment of emergency shelters for 2,000 people. This unit is stationed in Tenerife. Already yesterday afternoon were loaded at the port of Los Cristianos (Tenerife) 17 trucks with tents and all necessary equipment, which arrived in the evening in El Hierro. The second transport ship to follow today.
        This 2000 additional shelters will be installed to the Red Cross already been preserved and furnished accommodations. The total capacity would be enough for 4000 people. As a central location you’ve chosen the space Valverde.”

      4. Correction from the same site today:

        “Die Notunterkünfte fassen nicht 4000 Evakuierte sondern nur 2500 Menschen. Das Militär stellt 2000 und das Rote Kreuz 500 Plätze bereit. Wo die Zeltstadt errichtet wird, kann erst kurzfristig je nach Krisenlage entschieden werden. Als sicherster Standort gilt der Ostteil der Insel.”

        “The emergency shelter evacuees not believe 4000 but only 2,500 people. The military is ready, the Red Cross in 2000 and 500 seats. Where the tent city is built, can only be decided after each crisis situation at short notice. The safest location is the eastern part of the island.”

      6. The German blogger of this side trying to find people on a private basis (on El Hierro, Canary Islands or other), who agree to inhabitants of El Hierro in the emergency record. You can get in touch with him and he tried to do this to the Red Cross and to the emergency task force. I hope he can manage it …

        …the “hello Kitty”-Girl is stupid. Not interested, what’s going on behind her …or closing the eyes.

      8. Have you read the comments there. One girl there, Martina, nearly recommends to go there as it is beautyful and the officials surely care for the security of citizens and tourists. She claims it’s very bad to speak of the volcanic hazard as it could damage local enonomy… Scaremongers are nuts, but those coming from Hello Kitty world are dangerous too. Why is it so difficult for humans just to keep factual end realistic? Rhetoric question…

      10. Quite simply, people are afraid… but when simple people are afraid, they sometimes make the rest of us afraid of *them*.

        Rather than ridicule them or run from them, we should be afraid for them. If we cannot simplify complex situations enough for even ourselves-teachers, scientists, seekers – to understand, then how can we expect less cerebral people to do so? They will oversimplify the situation to disastrous effect either way; by saying it is the end of the world, or by believing their world cannot end.

        Should an explosive eruption occur on El Hierro, someone’s world will definitely end unless the government takes the proper precautions. That much is certain! However the rest of the world will continue bravely on, and may perhaps even prove to be exciting and beautiful. I myself find myself simultaneously fearful and enchanted by the prospect of unexpected volcanic activity- the prospect of rhyolitic magma is intriguing – but I understand that someone somewhere is praying it doesn’t occur in their own backyard. I also understand that we have a very small grasp of the situation and the Universe is often a violent teacher, so we mustn’t make the mistake of believing we know everything. The Universe will prove us wrong if we do…

        Those who understand much should forgive much – for we should know enough to know that we know nothing.

  28. Not unusual at this time of year for Iceland to have winter storms, At this time the jet stream is right over Iceland dragging deep depressions accross the country. Like the UK a potent jet stream will often bring a run of deepening depressions accross the Atlantic towards Western Europe effecting Iceland and Scotland in particular.

  29. This is a great blog, i have been watching with interest the activity in El Hierro since it started,and have learnt so much from all the comments here,however given the increase in activity and the unknown aspect of the location and nature of any possible eruption i would hope that evacuation of people should be a priority now, i cant see a tent protecting anyone from an eruption.

    1. I think they just want to move people to the safest part of the island (where they do not expect any volcanic activity). But unfortunately, creating a shelter seems to take a lot of time.

    2. Evacuate from where? To where?

      You have an idea of how to handle the logistics of that? Transpiration, food, medical (always got to have medical, some one always gets hurt, it’s part of being human)? How ya gonna handle lost wages during the mandated movement?

      A lot of things go into an evacuation… the biggest is who, from where and to where.

      I’m pretty sure that they have a handle on it.

      3. From 1999:

        http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk/wwwroot/montserr.htm

        Throughout the twentieth century, Monserratians have consistently migrated from their island as a labour resource, often sending back remittance paymetns. Recently, however, since the eruption of Chances Peak in 1995, approximately two thirds of the island’s population have migrated from the island for very different reasons, whilst 74% of the remaining population have had to relocate to the north of the island. Such drastic mass moevements have had – and continue to have – serious social, economic, political and cultural effects upon all those involved.

        I followed that very closely from the start. The government had great difficulty keeping the people away from their crops and animals and properties.

        So, yes, relocation is not something to be considered lightly. At the same time, I think I would just totally bug out.

  30. I found this posted by Leonor Padron Gonzalezon on the latest AVCAN facebook Post. I thought someone may find it interesting (Carl probably 🙂 ) This is a Facebook translation… not sure if it is Google based but it seems quite logical! If anyone want’s the original text I will get it. I do know some people are not keen on joining facebook but this is the link if you want it
    http://www.facebook.com/pages/Actualidad-Volc%C3%A1nica-de-Canarias-AVCAN/163883668446

    Leonor Padron Gonzalez OFFICIAL STATEMENT GOVERNMENT CANARY The first pyroclastic appeared in La Restinga are composed of basalt and trachyte 11/02/2011 … 20:11 – Ministry of Economy, Finance and Security So says the CSIC after the checks carried out in several laboratories Representatives of CSIC as part of the scientific committee of the Civil Protection Plan for volcanic risk (PEVOLCA) have moved to the direction of Plan preliminary results on the first pyroclastic thrown into the sea surface calms. The fragments are formed by a mixture of two materials magmatic, one black (basalt) and one white (trachyte), which occurred at the time of the rash which is a physical mixture between the two materials without the two has been a chemical reaction. In this regard it is noteworthy that these trachytes are volumetrically insignificant and constitute more than an anecdote that the main feature of the eruption. In reality the samples have been collected along these days, the trachyte was only present in the first few episodes as a ratio of 1 to 10 with respect to the basalt, which does not involved in determining the type of rash that results. Its origin may be due to a Remobilization (reflow) of a small remnant of material trachyte by the basalt again on his way to the surface. These processes are not so rare in this type of volcanism occur in a short time (a few hours to few days). These results, although they had already been advanced, had not been made ​​public because they still had not completed the series of checks must be done in this type of study, and not consider relevant the presence of that magma mixing as a controller of the dynamics of the eruption. It should be noted that studies have been published in the media during the day today corresponds to a concern staff responsible for its production and not a formal request from the City of El Pinar, as he said. To avoid the confusion arising from contradictory information, especially the residents of El Hierro, the direction of PEVOLCA emphasizes the importance of further official statements that leads to the population. To this end and for those scientific institutions and research who wish to participate in the study of this phenomenon eruption, the Canary Islands government has created a Coordinating Committee Scientific to achieve effective coordination and discussion of research in order to achieve better advice to the bodies responsible for civil protection. Procedures From the moment the members of CSIC took over sampling of pyroclasts and its analysis following the usual procedure in these cases, ie, sent the samples to different laboratories to compare results and to have a spectrum the broadest possible range of data. Some of the samples were sent to Madrid (MNCN, CSIC), Barcelona (ICTJA, CSIC) and the University of Huelva, where they are conducting studies of experimental petrology to determine the thermodynamic characteristics of magma eruptions. In addition, they have also sent samples to the University of Washington State, in the United States and of Clermont Ferrand, France, for isotopic analysis. basalt and trachyte, basalt is the magma more common in the eruptions of El Hierro, has a 43 percent of SiO 2, reaches a temperature of 1,200 ° C and a density of 2700 kg/m3. The trachyte is a magma with a content of SiO 2 from 63% reaches a temperature of 850 ° C and a density of 2,300 kg/m3. The trachyte is not the predominant magma erupted, therefore does not contribute to increase the explosiveness of it. Both the basaltic material as the trachyte samples are highly vesicular, which means that both had a number of gas High in the time of eruption, which would explain why it is explosive (formation of pyroclastic) despite the pressure of sea water over the mouth of issue. However, this type of explosive is normal within the parameters of basaltic eruptions that we move only and is not an additional hazard for the fact also contain magma trachytic.

    1. Pevolca is good at extrudin gasses.
      No, Facebook does not use Giggle translate. Google and Facebook is deadlocked in a battle to death right now so Facebook does not have any rights to use anything that is google.

    2. In this ofical statement they seem to give little importance to the trachyte issue, they say Trachyte only appeared on the firsts days and a in a small proportion, 1 to 10 in relation to the basalt.

      1. Thank you Frysk. I had a quick search for the original but obviously used wrong keywords in my search and couldn’t find it.

      6. How long is it a fart, and from when do we speak of shit? Among geologist friends, we once stated it’s 30 gramms for humans. Interesting thing on this theory, you can have shitted after having performed several farts.
        Quite OT, I admit; and I apologize to the sensitive soul amongst the readers.

    2. Wow, this occured several times today, but this was the greatest one.
      Jón, what you think about this ?

      1. This are harmonic tremor pulse. The magma is trying to find a path to the surface. But it having problems due to the rock type it seems. That is going to create more earthquakes with time.

        It is hard to know what this means in terms of size the eruption that is most likely coming.

        But the harmonic tremor has also increased on the whole. So that means the eruption has gotten bigger, or new vents have opened up already. But where that might be is still a mystery at the moment.

      2. It probably means that something is going to go Pooty soon.
        I agree with Jón and believe we most likely will see either a new Bob or a Baldrick (sub-aerial Bob). The other option is that Bob is getting a bit out of hand and is erupting at a much faster rate.
        I am waiting for the daily dose of Lurking-plot of the inflation/deflation. I think that one will be a tell tale of what is going on.

      3. Yep, with that thing attenuated at CHIE to whatever level its cut down to, and then showing what we are seeing means there is a serious pop coming. It will likely find its way out in a rapid manner that Jon suggested and when it does I dont think its going to be green water and brown pumice ejecta.

        This one is likely going honk and good. There is no history there to draw from so we have to assume the worst. Because of the winds they could still evacuate the island but only for a short time. The winds below 10000 feet are generally from the North. Above that the westerlies kick in and any ash that makes it past that would and could come down in the northern parts of the island where the ports and airports are. They would have but as little as a day to two or three likely max if this thing starts to emerge from the sea floor.

        It is reasonable to assume that it could do that and keep growing because its done it before. 10,000 feet worth roughly to make El Hierro what it is today.

        We might be blogging about it sometime in 2015.

  32. Carl, is surströmmings this nasty fish that rots in a tin can for month and nearly explodes when you open it? That thing one can only eat when he has true Viking blood or had kicked Thor’s very ass?

    1. Actually it is quite tasty 🙂
      But the smell can make one blind of one is not a true Viking.

      Here is an instructional video of how to A) Behaves as a Swede and B) Ingest surströmming and C) Swedish normal cloathing style and D) small Swedish Vikings are made…

    3. Yes and you should always only open it under water in a bathtub. Or else you risk yout apparment to smell for weeks…

    4. u are right – smells and behaves like a volcano. Viking blod doesn’t really help, u have to be a Swede, or add a lot of Aquavit to flush it down.

    6. Oh! I have been told about eating similar rotten fish Rakefisk, in Norway. There the fish is buried! My Daughter in law is Norwegian and told me about it. She says she will give me some when I go to Norway. I will try most things but I really don’t like the sound of it at all!
      I believe Iceland does similar “preserved” fish 🙂

      1. But the greenlandic Sursäl (sour-seal) is a bit much.
        You take a freshly killed seal, dig out the eyes as candy for the kids. Then you dig it down into the gravel on the beach. Leave ir for three months, then dig it up and eat.
        The poor seal by then smells exactly as a water-corpse. And the colour is grey, and there is no salt in it… And the taste, hm, how should I describe it? It is interesting to say the least. The raw whale-blubber was refreshing as a comparison.

      3. Yes, see en.wikipedia.org:
        ”’Hákarl”’ or ”’kæstur hákarl”’ ({{IPA-is|ˈhauːkʰartl̥}}) ([[Icelandic language|Icelandic]] for “fermented shark”) is a [[food]] from [[Iceland]]. It is a [[Greenland shark|Greenland]] or [[basking shark]] which has been cured with a particular [[fermentation (food)|fermentation]] process and hung to dry for four to five months. Hákarl is an [[acquired taste]]{{Citation needed|date=September 2010}} and has a very particular ammonia-rich smell and fishy taste, similar to very strong [[cheese]] slathered in ammonia.

        Hákarl is served as part of a ”[[þorramatur]]”, a selection of traditional [[Cuisine of Iceland|Icelandic food]] served at ”[[þorrablót]]” in midwinter. Hákarl is, however, readily available in Icelandic stores all year round and is eaten in all seasons.”

        And it is almost not possible to eat it without brennivín.

      5. But nothing could be worse than Germanys horrible exception to the reinheitsgeboot…
        Fleischbier, what sick person came up with the idea of making beer out of pork?
        It tastes like unsalted broth, but bubbly, and with lumps of fat swimming in it… GAHRGL!!!

      7. I have heard about “Fleischbier”. Where did you get that? Sounds horrible, that’s true.

      8. I had it at a brauhause in a quaint village about 30 kilometres from Düsseldorf where I lived.
        Very very evil friends took me to that place… And stupid as I am I tried the local brew…

  33. re H104:

    We have a NEW reading finally … ignoring error bars: no inflation since last accepted reading

      1. So now I know how it will look, if this dancing in front of the dalek became true…

        (Captcha: oplogo shock!)

      3. I shall instantly start to practice the choreography this video teaches for our dancing.

      4. I there any of the Icelanders who could assist with a suitable date? And perhaps even a car to help drive the beer up the mountain. I think there is a road up to the Dalek.

      8. A very informative video, I’d say …

        I am really learning a lot, on this website – but then, I also know Iceland and Icelanders and so …

  35. I’m confused, I know nothing about rocks chemicals and that type ofstuff . Has the IGN now completely contradicted what was said this morning by Barcelona? Or just renamed it? And have they just put their foot down regarding who is Boss in this current “Volcano” situation…?

    1. They just refuse to admit that they are full of Poop.
      Of course it is Professor Torrente that is correct. I looked up his credentials and he would be the most prestigious and regarded spanish geologist alive…

    2. Typical power play, yes. They have sent samples to various universities but no results so far, and when the Barcelona professor spoke up they suddenly came up with results because the population freaked out. Everything is so politicized in Espain…

      1. Yepp it is, and now every university in Spain will jump ontop of Pevolca because they are not “scientifico” and they will after that happily be arguing untill the entire island will fall into the ocean.
        I guess it will be the army that will have to clean up the mess in the end, and that somehow we will be horked with the bill for it all. At least greece opted for bancrupcy instead of more scandinavian money.

      2. Think I’ve got it now. IGN are Kings of the Castle. Full Stop. So eventhough INVOLCAN publish results of CO2 emissions (22 hours ago apparently) on Facebook, its not until 11.35am today, when it is published by Gobierno de Canarias (direct link from IGN website for more information) that we can believe it. Highly Logical!!??

  37. On http://www.localizatodo.com/mapa/, Ramon Margalef went to the area north of La Frontera, stayed there for a couple of hours and is now back in the port.

    Also, on this map there is now a much larger exclusion area around Baby Bob, it was 2km or so before (yesterday evening, the exclusion circle did not reach La Restinga), now I think it must be 4x larger.

    1. Correction, Ramon Margalef is only now returning to the port and I really like what you get it’s doing, when you click on it:
      Status: Engaged in Fishing
      🙂

  38. You never know – perhaps they do, on recommendation by Sr. El Cabildo and all of it live on tv.

  39. Earlier on someone suggested using Google earth to locate earthquake positions. I installed it for the first time and made the mistake of trying the flight simulator. I’m now about ready to throw up and testify that it is very difficult to fly the thing with a graphics tablet 🙁

    1. sorry, I forgot the flight simulator, should come with a government health warning. Haha.

  40. Might Bob be kind, Spanish officials wise, El Hierro inhabitants save and the rest of us dreaming sweet sheepy tales.
    Good night volcanolocas and volcanolocos.

      1. Shleep well GeoLoco. May your counted sheep be few and the duvet stay with you. 🙂

    1. Should make a challenging canvas to mount for display in long corridors. Quite a task but quite useful to be able to guage the changes in the ‘voice’ of the eruption.

    2. Vince that is impressive! The tremor is getting very large,I think larger than before Bob was born.

    3. That’s really good Vince – at-a-glance view of the whole shebang. Latest activity now really stands out in comparison with previoues days, weeks. Something obviously developing quickly now. Well done.

      1. How large is this tremor in relation to the initial tremor? Do we know how much they adjusted the scale by in the early days? This looks huge now and showing intermittent pulses

  42. There was a cluster of EQ around 22.30. If you plot them on Google Earth they are in an almost perfect straight line N-S. I wonder if there is any significance in this.

  43. I cannot stay awake here any longer. I must go and count sheep.
    May it be a peaceful and safe night for all especially those on El Hierro

    3. Goodnight Diana and why do things always seem to be more interesting when it is time to sleep. If I wake in the night now I will have a struggle not to reach for the laptop.

      1. This rings a bell with me.
        But I think I’ll also go counting sheep now or so …

        Good night – especially to the people of El Hierro.

  45. Something is really wrong with the borehole strainmeter of Hekla.
    It is now up to 4K scale, without any reason at all. Seems like it doubles in scaleing every four hours.

    1. I do not like this version at all, liked better the old version. But including other strain meters is good idea. Why not Geldingaá too? I also think, it is not good, not to have exact same scales. Current plot is in seconds, whilst 2000 plot is one minutes – but then min average chart can be good for comparison with Feb 2000 eruption map to see if Hekla (or another Mt. in vicinty) might be zipping. Why not paint all the apples and oranges the same colour?

    1. Your plots are magnificent! Thank you so much for taking the time to post them… I’ve been following you for quite some tie here and at Eric Klemetti’s site and they are so helpful.

      I suppose a giddy fangirl squeal would be inappropriate, but I can’t help it…

      *squeal*

      1. Me too, – I mean I won’t squeal -, but I very much like your plots, because it’s much easier to imagine how things work when looking at them.

        Thank you for your good work.

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