Posted on by Jón Frímann

Hydrothermal activity in El Hierro volcano

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


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

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

Other

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

13 Replies to “Hydrothermal activity in El Hierro volcano”

  1. More earthquakes today at Vatnajokull, some at Bardarbunga, and another at Kverfjoll. I think these volcanoes are getting ready to their eruptions, but we don’t know when, this could be only in a few decades.

  2. The eruption activity continues still. There is still some level of harmonic tremor – even if it is rather low and the Spanish newspaper Diario El Hierro confirms ongoing eruption in this article of today: ” La señal del tremor alcanza los niveles más bajos” http://www.diarioelhierro.com/
    The say: Aunque la señal disminuyó notablemente ayer, el tremor sigue presente en el registro confirmando la continuidad de la erupción. (in Engish: Thoug the tremor signal went down considerably yesterday, the tremor is continuing at the moment and confirming that the eruption goes on.

  4. The eruption is still ongoing copied below from ER steaming lava rocks were seen at 1838 yesterday evening.

    Hattie says:

    December 30, 2011 at 05:10

    Hey Sissel, over on the ER site they have a video and stills of Bob producing steaming lava rocks at about 18.38

  7. Harmonic tremor and earthqakes are on the run again and yesterdays steaming pumices are the evidence of ongoing lava emissions.

  8. El Hierro’s seismo went down yesterday and came back in the last couple of hours and much stronger looking.

    Anyone know if its scaling up/down again by the people in charge again to be able to see the various levels?

  9. I have just looked at the Movistar cam and saw many smoking pyroclasts. And they are so close to the nearby port!

Comments are closed.