Posted on by Jón Frímann

Update on the eruption in El Hierro volcano on 9 November, 2011

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The eruption in El Hierro volcano is ongoing and does not appear to show any signs of ending. However the strength of the eruption has dropped a bit during the past two days. But this was to be expected, since this is a fissure eruption and it has mostly been erupting from the same vents during the past four weeks.

It has become a bit difficult to get accurate information on what is going on El Hierro Island. So I am not going to speculate on that. But from what I can gather it seems that dangerous gas level has been detected on the ground. But the reports that I am reading are bit unclear on this. This has also been mentioned in comments on this blog.


The harmonic tremor from the eruption in El Hierro volcano at 15:23 UTC on 9 November, 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN.

As can be seen on this tremor plot the harmonic tremor in the eruption is dropping. Explosions that have taken place are also clear on this tremor plot. That might be because the eruption vent is getting smaller, therefor less magma is being push out the erupting vent. Or the currently erupting vent might be closing up. As so often happens with fissure type eruptions. If that happens does not mean that this eruption cycle is over. It just means that the current eruption vent has closed up. New fissures are most likely to open up in coming weeks as the eruption goes on. Where and when it impossible to know for sure.

Earthquake activity continues in north part of El Hierro volcano. This are most likely dike intrusions into the bed rock there. So earthquake activity should be expected to continue north west of the town Frontera. If a dike intrusion manages to find a path to the surface in this area there is going to be a eruption and earthquake activity should drop following that. But until and if that happens there are going to be earthquakes. There is also chance of hydrothermal activity to show up in this area if a dike intrusion gets shallow into the bed rock. But is not go up from the ground and start a eruption. This might also be the reason why some part of El Hierro Island are experiencing high levels of toxic gas for the moment.

I am going to post more on the eruption in El Hierro volcano as I know more what is going on.

418 Replies to “Update on the eruption in El Hierro volcano on 9 November, 2011”

  2. Look how many lower magnitude EQs are already taking place NW la Frontera. There are many more unlisted. They range from 9 to 16 km deep:
    1110336 05/11/2011 00:16:00 27.6452 -18.0214 11 IV 3.6 4 SW EL PINAR.IHI [+] info
    1110486 05/11/2011 15:45:12 27.7707 -18.0507 16 2.4 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110550 06/11/2011 00:48:31 27.7645 -18.0497 15 2.9 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110597 06/11/2011 06:20:37 27.8597 -18.0802 16 2.1 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110694 06/11/2011 23:48:08 27.8795 -18.0585 14 1.7 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110698 07/11/2011 00:50:55 27.8742 -18.0892 15 1.9 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110706 07/11/2011 02:52:19 27.8442 -18.0797 14 2.1 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110732 07/11/2011 05:06:04 27.8687 -18.0774 14 2.1 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110870 07/11/2011 14:23:22 27.8056 -18.0690 16 1.5 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110876 07/11/2011 15:36:25 27.7867 -18.0571 16 2.4 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110877 07/11/2011 15:40:44 27.7665 -18.0498 16 1.7 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info

  3. 1110882 07/11/2011 16:20:06 27.7663 -18.0517 16 2.5 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1110931 07/11/2011 20:51:48 27.8423 -18.0592 9 1.0 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111036 08/11/2011 02:26:28 27.7533 -18.0569 10 1.5 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111122 08/11/2011 03:37:42 27.8727 -18.0895 15 2.2 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111151 08/11/2011 08:04:18 27.7612 -18.0537 16 1.7 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111168 08/11/2011 08:46:32 27.7668 -18.0659 11 1.9 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111196 08/11/2011 10:31:46 27.6350 -18.0374 13 2.6 4 SW EL PINAR.IHI [+] info
    1111197 08/11/2011 11:46:25 27.7993 -18.0537 15 1.9 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111260 08/11/2011 13:45:08 27.8375 -18.0744 10 1.5 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111291 08/11/2011 17:58:03 27.7586 -18.0466 16 1.9 4 W FRONTERA.IHI [+] info
    1111323 08/11/2011 19:14:55 27.8321 -18.0772 14 1.3 4 NW FRONTERA.IHI [+] in

  4. @Peter and the El Hierro Under Pants gnomes…:D

    No seriously. You have mentioned underplating on a few occasions. What do you propose as a source to the material? I don’t know of a a subducted plate in the area, although I suppose it could be material drifting up from the slab graveyard that just now (geologically speaking, it’s actually a few tens of millions of years) got around to differentiating as it comes apart.

    It’s not that far of a reach… logically. We’ve seen the slab graveyard via tomoghraphy and the evidence for it’s existence is pretty strong. Who is to say that the Canary hotspot and what ever is driving the Madeiras area to the north (that seem to parallel the Canaries) do not share a common driving phenomena. As a side note… the long time range quake plot for all of the Canaries have scattered quakes that deepen as you go further north/northwest, towards the Madeiras.

    If that’s the case, the question I have would be what the constituent material.

    1. Lurking,
      Its mantle-derived magma that has cooled under the crust as underplating, rather than erupting above the crust . Was first described in Hawaii , then at other low flux volcanos and possibly present in Canaries.
      The other possibility for that quiet zone is that its where crustal compression/tension – generated by crust deformation resulting from the overburden of the erupted mass of El Hierro – are balanced. So no net force, no compressive melting, no Eqs:
      Good diagram of ‘deviatoric’ stress. fig1 here:
      http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/staffpages/utenbrink/my%20publications/volcano_spacing_1991.pdf

  5. Jon – the blog may be gaining spam comments because your comment system is set to ‘do-follow’; check the settings for the comments and make sure they are set to ‘no-follow’ – this may help reduce the spam volume.

    1. The only setting that has something like that in terms of a function is this setting here, “Attempt to notify any blogs linked to from the article.”. There is a second option. But I have long since disabled it due to the spam problem.

      3. I am using the most recent version of WordPress. I always do that for security reasons.

        I do not know why this is happening now. But I suspect that Christmas is close might have something to do with this.

  6. Something just occured to me upon reading the last two posts on Erik K’s blog, isn’t Bob’s submarine activity exactly the same as the fissure eruption that is going on in the
    Nyamuragira volcano in Congo? I.e. this, except underwater:
    http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/11/new-flank-eruption-at-the-congos-nyamuragira/
    http://gorillacd.org/2011/11/07/nyamulagira-volcano-erupts/
    That’s more or less what it’s going to look like if Bob emerges on land in the line between the northern and the southern foci, isn’t it?

    1. Big if.

      The Frontera side has quakes that are pretty deep, and they are in rough alignment with the southern ridge. This could be the parent mechanism that both Tinor and El Golfo were sideshows of. When they became the dominant venting feature, they took over until they fell apart.

      But connecting the Frontera side and the ridge is gonna take a lot of work.

      Personally I don’t think it’s up to it. Right now, Bob is in the size category of the other cones cinder cones scattered about the island and underwater.

      2. Come on… its the Lurk. It shouldnt slow you down more than 30 minutes…LOL !

      3. I guess Lurking is still a de facto person, who has also a real life, work, family etc. things to occupy his daily hours.

  8. I like this new blog post Jon “Update on the eruption in El Hierro volcano on 9 November, 2011” That is very clear about the nature of the fissure eruption. It will be very interesting to follow this eruption for me.

    A bit like Eyjafjallajökull 2010, the eruption could stop then start a day or so later somewhere else, in this case on the fissure or near it, the gasses permeating through the surface of the island are a reminder that this volcano is still in an active period. It sounds like possibly once Bob has stopped, somewhere else could be the center of attention. Personally I hope for a nice “Tourist fissure” out of harms way, just like Fimmvörðuháls. It would be nice El Hierro to have a nice injection of tourist cash for all the inconvenience this eruption has caused up to now. The thought of hydrothermal activity is exciting too in this respect. I hope especially the fishermen and other people who have done so badly up to now get better luck out of this.

  9. The red is only in La Restinga, but they put on high alert. That sounds like the calm before the storm.

  10. great blog, very informative and interesting and it fulfils my strange addiction to volcanoes and earthquakes 🙂

      2. That looks fabulous but is it live? It’s showing daylight now and surely it’s night there?

    2. You’re right. It’s still bright daylight and no sign of a sunset. What a disappointment. 🙁 Pretty though.

      1. from Earthquake -report:
        “Update 09/22 – 20:00 UTC:
        The webcam at La Restinga is (sometimes) online again, ONLY it is image instead of a webcam. It is clearly written Camera Web !, and a picture is not a Camera Web. Joke told me this afternoon that the software still had to be installed. Lets give it a chance tomorrow, otherwise it will be again a hoax ! This afternoon when it went live, it looked like a real image with the sun in the right direction etc. If they continue to use the current picture, they have to ERASE immediately the Camera Web written on top of it !”

      2. If you point it towards the ground there’s a great big ‘I love El Hierro’ sign. Could this be Mr Wotsisname on his quest for tourists again?

      3. That one has been around since at least September… At first I also thought it was a web camera, but I guess Camera Web is Hierran for tourist-360 picture.

  12. The tremor chart shows it dropped suddenly at 09.08 this morning. I wonder whether there is any link to the time of the quakes at Yellowstone today, and the passing of the asteroid closer to USA side of the planet. Could it have exercised a temporary tug at the core as it passed?

      1. Coincidentally the effect of that asteoid is the same as if a normal-sized person walks across Yellowstone.
        Alyson you should remember that the Newtonian law of gravity says that for every doubling of distance the gravitys effect is diminsished by (inverse) square.
        This explains why you need a whomping large body to affect anything, even pretty close.

        More precise version:
        The force is proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.
        F=G x m^1m^2/r^2

      2. Thanks for the math, Carl.

        Is there any coincidence around the time, though? It seemed there might be, though I grant it is highly unlikely to be anything other than coincidence.

        A flea on an elk might make the skin twitch in its vicinity, Brian… But as for the asteroid, I grant the scale was negligible. 🙂

      3. Only coincidence.
        Or more to the point. Laws of probabillity.
        If a meteorite comes close to the planet earth there will be quakes happening. Take away the meteorite, the quakes would also happen.

        If you have a rare occurance and start looking around for correlation among somethings as common as quakes you will always find something matching somewhere.

    1. What does ‘sentido’ mean whne it appearrs on the list of quakes as this one.
      111557 09/11/2011 18:41:11 27.7830 -18.0486 21 SENTIDO 3.1 4

      2. Thanks a lot Carl, all I got on google was ‘sense’ so I wasn’t sure if it meant ‘they had made sense of it’ (checked it) or if it meant people had sensed it. Thanks again, people are so helpful on this blog. 🙂

  14. The low frequency harmonic tremor that appears on all but two of the island seismographs has reappeared and is increasing in amplitude quite rapidly. It is now at 0.13Hz but it has a complex beat pattern suggesting that it is composed of two closely spaced signals with a frequency difference of only 0.014Hz. With such widespread reception is must be coming from very deep down. If it represents the rate of flow of the main magma supply then things are hotting up.

      1. On the spectral power distribution yes. I don’t know for sure of course that that is what it represents, there have been dissenting voices but it does seem to correlate to a degree with the activity we are seeing. It seems to be greatest in amplitude when things are changing the fastest.

      2. I think that is the voice of the hotspot plume. I think you are right, that is magma moving up from far deep down. The frequancy is way to low to be sustainable in such a small volume as a magma tube or a magma-reservoir.

  15. I’m off to hospital 150 miles away tomorrow for epidural injections into my spine so I shall be away from my computer for two days. I hope no more.
    If there is going to be a major development you can guarantee it will happen while I am out of touch so get ready. 🙁

    3. Oh Get well soon Brian. I hope the injections work for you and you become reasonably pain free.

      1. I just had epidurals in my neck today. I usually have them in my spine every two weeks. Believe me, the lumbar injections are a lot less painful than the cervical ones. I occasionally have lumbar shots with no anesthetic when I can’t get a ride. Good luck with your injections. You will be fine by the afternoon!!!

  18. While it is still in Iceland and Bob blobs, I have to say again how well this blog is and are the participants. While debate on the german blog goes bad, I enjoy the most polite comments here and the (well mostly:) ) factual comments. I question myself whether it is on the linguistic distance (for many of us english is not their native language). Anyway, I hope it stays that way.

    1. Nah, nothing to do with linguistic distance, it’s just because we’re all fabulous! 😀 😀

      Seriously though I agree with you, this is one of the best blogs, both for the quality of the content as well as for the quality&niceness of the participants. Thanks to Jon for providing this space and building this community.

      1. Ich weiß: man kann auch auf Englisch pöbeln!
        (Trying to use giggle but “pöbeln” is unknown.) 🙂

      4. Swedish pöbel is an angry mob running around screaming their lungs off.
        It was made kind of famous the last time we came and pöbeled through Germany in the war of 30 years.

        I think that if I ever buy a brewery I will change the name to Pöbelbier.

      6. Poebeln means to swear in English but I think you may also mean: squabble, as many blog sites suffer from people/posters who delight in squabbling and are using the blog for little or no other purpose. It is extremely tedious! ( Squabble = Like tired children arguing with one another.)

        You are right – this is a super blog site. Thanks Jon!

      7. That is why I like it here. Almost never any squabbles. An occational heated argument over outlandish theories, but never any ill feeling. Well, not counting the scaremongers, 2012:ers and that kind…

      8. Populus in Latin, gepeupel in Dutch, popolo in italian, peuple in French, pueblo in Spanish… probably of indo-european origin. In the Germanic languages “Volk” is more common to refer to the people, while pöbel, gepeupel etc has indeed the connotation of a mob.

      9. LAKAT says:
        November 9, 2011 at 22:07

        “Poebeln means to swear in English”

        Eh? You mean it’s the equivalent of English “swear” or that the English word for swear is “poebeln”…

        …because I’ve never heard of it.

        It wouldn’t be the first time that a word was plastered into this language that I’ve never heard of. (it’s got a lot of words from different cultures wedged into the lexicon)

      11. Anton/Alyson

        Fascinating – that makes a lot of sense to me which is why it got into the Welsh language too. Pays de Galles is the French name for Wales and the Gauls( predominantly from an area which is now France) invaded it long ago and gave the welsh people many words which are still used. Perhaps as the germans now use it as a verb it might have come from “of the mob/ of the common people” and that means also

        bad behaviour/swearing. Maybe not?!!

        Actually the gauls spread far and wide so you can all claim the word. – see here:
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaul

      12. Hi Lakat

        Replying to you here to your comment below: Gallic people are Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Galician and the blue/green eyed Berbers from the mountains of Western Morrocco, whose language is a Gallic language too.

        The Romans brought Latin into the languages of Europe. However cwm in Welsh is the same word for valley in Hindi, while kakhi sounds much like cachi in Welsh.

        Old Icelandic is the same as the old Irish that used to be written on the Irish punts. The stories of Ireland tell of Atlantean people who used to travel the Western coasts of Europe and Scandinavia, down as far as Morrocco, and it was interesting to read that the people on El Hierro, before the Spanish, were related to the Gallic Berbers of Morrocco.

      13. And the “old French” derived from the latin language. So it’s :

        populus (lat.) -> peuple (today’s French) ->(der) Pöbel (in German) .

        And as it goes, the meaning was slightly changed, in now meaning “mob” (in German).

        And thence comes also the German verb “pöbeln”, actually “jemanden anpöbeln”

        As translations I found in http://www.leo.org:
        to abuse (which to me seems the best translation), to accost so., to mob and to molest so.

        – This, for example I like in this blog: As we say in Germany, “man kommt vom Hundertsten ins Tausendste” – meaning: “some subjects are leading you to other subjects and these further on and so on and so on…” And it’s really fun to go into a lot of differenct subjects with people from other countries, as so. said before because the cultural exchange is enriching all of us.

        (answer to Anton, 22:24)

  19. In fact, if one very roughly calculates it, it would have (at its closest approach, 3.25 ^8 m) have pretty much the same effect as any human being asserts on objects around 1 km away…

    …so better start worrying on the effects of your movement! Who of us caused Bob?! 🙂

    (also that already assumes the object is kind of a massive ‘bowling ball’ heavier then iron (8000 kg/m3), which is totally unrealistic, surely was much less than that…)

      2. Aaargh! Blame hubby. He walked across the room to switch of the television when the batteries failed in the remote. 😉 😉

    1. Also, if you click on the days in the calendar, you’ll get a pdf for each day of findings/results.

    2. Link: http://www.ieo.es/images/NP_101111_crecimientovolcan.jpg

      In these panels you can see at least four former vents that are same size or larger than the the active highlighted. This might suggest it is unlikely that an old vent will reopen but the presence of so many cones in small areas of the island makes it difficult to predict where a new area of venting will occur.

  22. telecanaris has confirmed the webcam, the set-up is there, they just need to add the live images. So if this is what we get with all the control buttons that is really nice!

  24. @Ursula. I would never pay attention to anything the Daily Mail has to say especially when it comes to science and the environment. They are well known for scaremongering and blowing stories way out of context lol

  25. OT but it shows the sort of weather that affects the earthquake instruments in Iceland. I take my hat off (please don’t eat it, Carl) to the people who keep the webcams going through winds like this. Keep an eye on the container on the right of the picture.

    http://vimeo.com/31675022

    About the video “In the east of Iceland has a gust of wind yesterday, a heavy container (about 4,000 pounds) at sea to overturn. It was wind speeds of about 78 meters per second, or 280 kilometers per hour. The wind speed was recorded at Mánárbakki. It can be even sterner. Further inland wind speeds were an average peak of 371 km per hour measured.”

    1. It is probably an articulated trailer body- so lighter than shipping container…

      1. @Peter Cubbold. In news here they said it was an empty Shipping/Freezer-Container (likely 40 feet-er) and this was salvaged by the new Icelandic Coast Guard “ocean-tug-Search-And-Rescue-wessel” VS Þór after drifting accross the fjord.

    2. So high wind speed (280 – 371 km/h)? Is that correct? It is not the highest speed ever recorded (a wind gust of 408 km/h measured in Australia 1996, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_speed ), but still extremely extreme.

      By the way, should be a fantastic experience as long as you do not blow away and still can breathe!

  27. Note that the color has taken on the blackish tone. Ash suspended in the water. Another week, ten days and we might see the emergence of Bob (Bob Maximus).

    I have also noted the black footprint. It has widened during activity to about 300 yards of Restinga beach. That place is going to get buried if the ash starts to fall. Vesuvius moment in history.

  28. This is a giggle translation from the AVCAN facebook page.

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Actualidad-Volc%C3%A1nica-de-Canarias-AVCAN/163883668446

    Now listening on the radio news, have commented as new demand that the population of El Hierro is starting to do so have teams of psychologists dealing with people that what is going wrong, something required from the outset in this emergency situation.. .by risk sísmico-volcánico on the island of the Meridian, but the truth is that he listened while I was flabbergasted to such demand, because the reality is that displaced there teams of first aid psychological / psychological intervention in situations of Crisis more than one month. A shame that little culture of emergency existing in the Islands, the involved administrations and the population itself barely has made use of this important service since they began to feel the first symptoms.

    As many of you will recall, on 8 October two days before the start of the eruption!, AVCAN published an article in which indicated some of the measures of collective protection they had moved to the iron, with the intention of promoting among the population a feeling of being protected against what could happen by emergency systems. This is the link to that article:

    http://www.avcan.org/?m=Noticias & a = news & N = 903

    Which includes this paragraph:

    “In the context of the current time of this seismic crisis, it should be mentioned that Red Cross has shifted to the island of El Hierro personnel qualified for first aid psychological care, a very useful tool for those people who feel that the current situation they can exceed or collapse.” Their assistance may be helpful. If you think that you or any person in his environment may need this service, do not hesitate to get in touch with the Red Cross to volunteers carefully they channelled them to appropriate resources. ”

    We reiterate in mentioned in the preceding paragraph. When it was published and linked it to this forum, there were some comments stating that it was an exaggeration, that there was no need psychologists or tilas, or anything that (until then used to finish my messages with “calm and tilas”…)

    It is normal that at first there is the feeling of rejection, but over time the need for REAL somehow channel the feelings of impotence, rabies, fatigue, loneliness, fear, etc. that an emergency as this generates, especially if it is so bulky in the time just assimilating…

    Since AVCAN was detected from the outset that this aspect could be a problem for some sectors of the population herreña, because he had symptoms become serious by the volume that could cover (economic, social and labor crisis together around the volcano and its movements), and have been needed almost four months of earthquakes and eruption so that socially and POLÍTICAMENTE begins to demand something of this. But is that the aid has already been there since before the eruption! Think that in fact, are the unique “tirita” that until the moment SE HAN post in EL HIERRO (as far as first aid is concerned).

    From AVCAN want to publicly acknowledge the work that so far have made security and emergency services displaced and/or located in El Hierro, and in particular to those people or organizations that altruistic mode have been collaborating as volunteers, as it is the case of the Red Cross who have been there all these weeks doing just… what to do

    https://www.facebook.com/pages/Actualidad-Volc%C3%A1nica-de-Canarias-AVCAN/163883668446

      1. Dunno, with the level of quaking on the island, I imagine a lot of people feel like that dog in the earthquake video.

        If they start foaming at the mouth I would stay well clear of them.

      9. Ah, that reminds me. We had our National Test of the Emergency Government Seizes Control of the Airwaves system.

        According to the news, it failed horribly. Some reported strains of Lady Gaga playing during the garbled voice announcement accompanied by an overbearing squeal.

        All I got was Frankie Smith’s “Double Dutch Bus”… so I put on a CD and motored on.

      14. A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
        And no one can talk to a horse of course
        That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed…

      15. Guess the word was “rabia”, anger… Giggle makes it Rabies, while “rabid” would make much more sense. Rabies comes from the same root, sure, but what was meant here are ‘fits of anger’.

    2. The Red Cross should be shifting Depends to the island because if either one of those things breaks the surface and starts dropping ash they are going to need that and a whole lot of baby wipes…….

      Seriously? These people act like nothing is going to happen. That black means ash in the water and not falling back down so its kind of floating too.

      Remains to be seen of course but if it does, they wont be able to get them off the island fast enough.

      1. One of the things I do not understand is why this serious matter seems to get little attention from the Spanish gouvernment.

        This is not a Canarian problem in my opinion, but a Spanish problem. Or should we say an EU problem. There is a lot of money and action needed NOW.

        EU politicians, forget about the banks today, help El Hierro!

    1. As much as I would like to do a plot like that, the site has it’s table locked up in java and flash scripting. I tried to figure a way past a similar site in English (same organization I think) and spent more time beating on the html than anything else.

      If it were an unglitzy tide table, I could even do correlation testing on the data.

      I used to have access to an electronic charting program that had tides and currents for any place in the world, but that was twelve years ago.

      If you can find a flat file with max – min and timestamps I can work with that. In your browser, you will be able to highlight the table. That would be a clear sign that I can work with it.

      Not having that, about all I can do is a quake per hour or per day chart. I could probably even get it down to quakes per 15 minutes without taxing my system in the calculation.

    2. Tell you what… I’ll make a deal with you.

      If you can transpose those high and low tide values into time stamps

      YYYY MM DD HH:MM High
      YYYY MM DD HH:MM Low

      I’ll run the correlation for you.

      I just spent about a couple of hours looking for the data in straight up table format, but could only find the tides4fishing data and a lot of people who want to sell me the data.

      BOWDITCH points to a US Oceanography site for the tide tables for West African region ports, but they only offer up US data. Thank you @#$$@ bad administration. The closest I can find in the open world are tables for a site on another Canary Island. I tried cross correlating the time offset but it gets funky about six time sets in where one island starts lagging when it was leading before.

      Moving over to Lunar-Solar angles to see if I could at least lock the sequence into an angular relationship gives me tides that occur at a wide range of relationships. (Sun Azimuth, Sun Elevation angle, Lunar Azimuth, Lunar Elevation Angle etc… all from an observer location in that port) In a nutshell, I’d wind up spending a week just gathering enough data to cobble together a rough model to just find the tide relationship.

      I know where your going with this. I don’t necessarily buy into it, but if you get the data I’ll run the plot. After all, I’ve been known to plot some pretty weird stuff.

      By the way. For the fans of esoteric tidbits of data.

      While rummaging around in BOWDITCH (“The American Practical Navigator”) looking for tide info and some data on the Beufort scale/fetch and wave height (Alaska is gonna get nailed), I ran across this nice little formula.

      Ro = 0.01 x (1010 – hectopascal)

      That yields the amount of sealevel rise or fall (meters) based on barometric pressure for a stationary low/high

      One hectopascal is equivalent to one millibar, so a stationary storm system that has a central pressure of about 980mb can lift the normal sea level by about 30 centimeters. Likewise, a high of 1020 mb can depress it about 10 cm.

      Lot of good data in Bowditch. Its really handy for all things seafaring… including spherical trigonometry.

      3. And yes, i know ciclonic tides… I live near Finisterre. (but don’t affect earthquakes….. i think..)

      2. Yes! I remember! In Spain this tv movie was called “La mula Francis”. I liked very much when I was only a child.

      3. @Una: Francis the talking mule was a movie. Mr. Ed the talking horse was a U.S. television series.

  33. Son de Bueu: Nun hai tener en cuenta tamién el folaxe? La definición nel wiki tien «Las olas del mar son ondas sísmicas…» Ambos xeneren presión na costa ya’l edificiu del volcán, non?
    Shouldn’t you look at swell as well? They would both generate pressure upon the coast and the volcanin edifice, no?

    1. Nice plot again, and I really like your explanations too. They get better all the time and are now turning into “must-reads”.

    2. Very interesting… if I interpret the colors correctly that means the El Golfo area is actually subsiding? So that is no magma intrusion there, but rather relaxation due to stuff shifting elsewhere?

      2. Guess it is, so actual lifting there, would make much more sense, too…

        …eyes still finding it somewhat difficult to remain in the proper working position, pre-Coffee… 🙂

      3. So compared to the earlier plot, before Bob, (El Hierro.swf – Y…) the island has rocked! On the earlier plot it was La Restinga area that was raised and west of the island was lowered, whereas now Restinga and east of Restinga is lowered and Frontera and NW is raised instead.

        (if I read these correct…) Thanks Lurk – the plots are brilliant – wish I could say the same for my ability to read them. 😉

    3. Great! What will this tell? That we maybe gonna have an eruption right north of La Restinga, or in the bay of Frontera.

    4. Thank you for another great plot.

      So we are seeing a continued pattern of greater elevation at SABI and FRON compared to VALV; less elevation or falling at PINA; and REST is showing no change compared to VALV.

      This is looking like inflation at SABI and FRON, with deflation at PINA. It fits with the theory that we have a magma injection in the NW Frontera area.

      Does anyone know what is happening at Tanganasoga or Malpaso?

      3. It seems that the its intensity is lower than the others days. I think that the vent is closing.

  36. Thursday
    10.11.2011 02:52:31 63.646 -19.061 1.1 km 3.1 90.01 7.6 km NNE of Hábunga

  37. @ Karen

    It seems like the El Hierro quakes are getting shallower, but how much? I wonder.

    If you have the time, a graph showing the average depth (y-axis) of the listed quakes for each day (x-axis) since 1 oktober or so would be interesting.

    1. This is actually less funny than it may sound. The weatherforecast from noon on is a catastrophy if you want to survive in the mountains – storm and snow. Landsbjörg is literally throwing everything into the battle to find this man before, meaning there are now some 300 persons in that region plus one helicopter from the coastguard.

    2. He has wandered off the Fimmvörðuháls to Mýrdalsjökull trail and is thought to be South West of Eyjafjallajökull on the glacier.
      That looks a difficult job, I do not rate his chance of survival

      1. One day last july I walked from Skogar campside to the Fimmvörduhals skali and when I wanted to walk back there was suddenly a very strong drop in visibility due to very low clouds and drizzle.
        Just when I passed the second hut, I couldn’t find a marked path and because I was starting to desoriëntate (everyting in that area looks alike) I returned to the second hut which at that point I could barely see. I met 2 backpackers there and stayed with them until I found the marked path again.
        With bad visibility it’s suicide when you don’t know where you’re headin’! For sure you get lost and it’s now november and not july (significant difference in temperature and daylight!).
        Henk

      2. Oh dear! I hope he survives. But we have people here who very stupidly go up on our hills or out to sea without checking weather and without adequate clothing and emergency equipment. They cost tax payers much money and put the lives of rescuers at risk. I really often do not have much sympathy. Maybe I am being too harsh. I feel common sense is now an old fashioned trait.

      3. I must add that he he went out alone in this terrain and weather then he has broken the #1 rule of safe walking. never, ever go alone onto mountains and hill areas alone if you do not know the area well.!

  39. Lurking, i have your data..
    calipso.puertos.es/Mareas/Principal1.php?Tipo=1&Month=11&Annus=2011&Modo=2&ZeroPuerto=1&Estacion=3459&Lenguaje=es&Dia=7&Dibujar=Actualizar+Predicci%F3n
    Maybe a graph comparing EQ energy/tide or EQcount/tide

    Table data for astronomical tide prediction for each hour.
    I ask for a comparation after read this:
    http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Outreach/AboutVolcanoes/do_tides_affect_volcanoes.html

    And yes: i know cyclonic tides. (but i think don’t affect erupcions..)

  40. Soar CO2 levels in El Hierro
    Canary Institute Volcano Island detected in 1,400 tons of carbon dioxide

    PEDRO WAR – SPECIAL ENVOY THE IRON CO2 levels have skyrocketed in El Hierro in the last hours. If last week’s rate of emission of carbon dioxide and was 3.5 times higher than normal, with more than 1,200 tons per day around the island building, yesterday the figures identified by scientists at the Institute of the Canary Islands Volcano (non-tip) already exceeded the 1,400 tons per day in a place where the emission is normal average of 340 tonnes. Over 900 tonnes of CO2 per day and is considered an abnormal emission of carbon dioxide. CO2 is the first gas that emerges from the depths in a volcanic eruption and could mean that the magma moves with intensity for a out. Normally, the release of CO2 is a warning of a possible eruption. http://www.laprovincia.es/especiales/2011/11/10/disparan-niveles-co2-hierro/414654.html

  42. what ever happened to those new vents near Restinga(sp?) . Are they still active ?

    1. Una Canaria says:
      November 10, 2011 at 11:32
      It seems that the its intensity is lower than the others days. I think that the vent is closing.

      1. The entire newspaper is a joke 🙂 I don’t even believe the date they print in it.

    1. Today is his 1 month birthday, so maybe he is getting ready for a little party tonight… 😉

      1. Plus tonight is a fullmoon and after midnight it’s 11.11.11… If the activity continues to increase during the night, I don’t even want to think about what all the scaremongerers out there is going to say! I almost wish Bob will be quiet for a few days… 😉

      2. I had forgotten! Tomorrow is lottery day. If I bet on the number 111111 sure I will win a lot of money!

      3. Yo apuestaría nesto, de los poderosos – como dicimos n’asturianu: A tou gochín-y llega’l so Samartín

    1. There is only one Bob!
      The first sounding/picture shows the lava filling the valley on the 24th October. The second was taken 4 days later on the 28th, showing a larger cone and more lava.
      In the 4 days they estimate that 5.5 million cubic metres of material was ejected.

      1. several new vents opened up about a week ago in a rift like sequence near Bob , not sure if they are still active now or not

  47. I see there is a quake recorded with no depth again, further north again. Is this in response to the rifting, or could magma be heading north?

    1. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact they are trying to stop samples of the volcanic rocks leaving the island?

    2. The interesting part is this ( Giggletrans):
      “”…..has been submitted to the Government of the Canary Islands copy of the article entitled “A volcano erupting Sandstones? The particular case of El Hierro, Canary Islands” (A volcano emitting sandstone? The peculiar case of El Hierro, Canary Canarias), sent to Science Now, the online home of the magazine Science News of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), the largest general scientific society. This report, coordinated by Professor Valentin Troll, Uppsala University (Sweden) has been done in record time by a large group of scientists that includes German (Leibniz Institute of Oceanography in Kiel and Munich’s Ludwig-Maximilians ) and Italian (National Institutes of Rome and Pisa and Grupo Synchrotron, Trieste), plus the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (the author of this article).
      In short summary, the interpretation which we have this group of scientists is that the white interior of these floating bombs is composed of quartz-rich ocean sediments (fine sandstone with darker veins pelagic mud), from ocean currents Saharan dust turbidity or suspended, both of African origin, the only place with quartz crystals, non-existent in the Canaries. So there is another basaltic magma that, which includes in its promotion this sedimentary material with a thickness of several kilometers, forming the upper part of oceanic crust and the substrate which supports the Canary Islands. Where, then, the interpretation of the scientists at the University of Barcelona and CSIC? It might be a mistake for beginners to use a classification system of volcanic rocks for a material that is of sedimentary origin. When a silica-rich sediment is projected on a TAS diagram (alkalis versus silica), falls into the field that corresponds to trachytes and phonolites, although it is a sedimentary material. Both magmas scaremongering with explosives to be most likely a harmless ocean sediments … Wet gunpowder!””””

      So they are saying that quartz-rich material in the restingas derives from the sedimentary layer – and this has misled the Barcelona group. Interesting that Troll is long term collaborator of Carracedo.
      So Bob’s restingas are ‘wet gunpowder’.

      1. Ya know what makes a Rhyolite thicker and more unwilling to give up its gases?

        SiO2 – silica

        Ya know what sand is? SiO2 – silica.

        In the wold of the TAS diagram…. Silica is the end node. that you are measuring Trachyte and Rhyolite against.

      2. Yes I know, but in what position? In my 10 years old book from Carracedo he was described as “Director of Estation Volcanologica de Canarias” of the CSIC.

      3. He works at the group of research Physics and Geology Geovol at the University of the University of Las Palmas

      4. Dr. Juan Carlos Carracedo at the Estación Volcanológica de Canarias (part of the Spanish Research Council, CSIC) in La Laguna, Tenerife

  49. Xana, aquí decimos “a cada cerdo le llega su San Martín”. Me parece que eso se dice en todos los idiomas!

  50. The harmonic tremor seems to be increasing again in El Hierro volcano. But it is not yet up to the level it was few days ago when the new vents did open up. But I do not know if they are still erupting or not.

    1. New bathymetric image: http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/4706/ieo281011.jpg

      According to people in FB AVCAN, no jacuzzi, people were disappointed, and now the island is shrouded in mist now, so not much can be seen.

      The pH of superficial sea water has varied between 7.97 and 5.45 at a depth of 5 meter in the zone of de eruption. http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/noticias/?module=1&page=nota.htm&id=144651.

      Also a piece on the Restingolitas by the geologist Juan J. Coello Bravo:
      http://www.avcan.org/?m=Noticias&a=noticia&N=911

      And Carrecedo strikes back immediately with his version: http://eldia.es/2011-11-10/ISLAS/13-Rocas-volcanicas-flotantes-isla-Hierro.htm

      In Spain the 11th of November is St. Martin’s Day; that’s when people would slaughter a pig to provide food for the winter. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin%27s_Day#Spain
      ¡Party on!

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