El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands: powerful earthquake swarm without earlier comparison,

[jed turtle]

El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands: powerful earthquake swarm without earlier comparison, eruption warning

http://thewatchers.adorraeli.com/201...ption-warning/

Unusually strong earthquake swarm under El Hierro Island continued today on Canary Islands. A record number of quakes, more than 240, were recorded on June 26, 2012 (most of them larger than M2 and 6 larger than M3), all were at about 18-20 km depth. Since tremor set in again after 16:10 yesterday, quakes migrated to the El Julan area.



There were more than 100 earthquakes so far today and the frequency of earthquakes is also slightly downward. Tremor has decreased but is still present, apparently magma keeps moving somewhere.

Note: The exact number of earthquakes is unknown. What we do know this is much more serious situation than that of last year.

What looked as an almost terminated story was reactivated a couple of weeks ago by some weak earthquake swarms. The activity migrated towards the El Golfo bay where it also began in June/ July 2011. What we witnessed on Monday was however an exceptional powerful volcanic earthquake swarm without any earlier comparison.


Pevolca called a Yellow alert in the unpopulated earthquake zone on Wednesday, June 27, 2012. In a live interview on RTVC, the local Canary Island TV and Radio station, María José Jurado has declared that the El Julan and La Dehesa area will be labeled as “Yellow Alert” area. Besides a church and a lighthouse, this area is unpopulated.

The tremor, a low-frequency ground vibration, is thought to be caused by moving magma. It had been strong yesterday and correlated well with a southward propagation of earthquake locations, suggesting that magma at about 20 km depth flew from underneath the El Golfo area towards the El Julan (south) coast, in a similar way as before the Oct 2011 eruption, but became blocked there, and did not reach the southern rift zone near La Restinga.

Pressure continued to cause wide-spread rock fracturing underground and cause small intrusions of fluids. Now, the re-appearance of tremor could mean that magma is moving again somewhere underneath the island. Where to and whether or not it might reach the surface and initiate a new eruption is difficult to know at the moment. It is essential to continue to monitor location and magnitude of earthquakes.

Deformations, as described in the Involcan maps and report below, are generated by the Magma pressure and are one of the major indications to predict eruptions. Together with the strength of the earthquakes, the depth of the hypocenters and the emitted gases, they are used by volcanologists to send alerts and warnings to the public. The mitted gases are the uncertain factor in this case but didn’t we hear a couple of months ago that some sampling points were dismantled?

Important update!

June 27, 2012 – 09:39 UTC

INVOLCAN, partner in the PEVOLCA steering group has taken the initiative to send an informative note to a lot of people. Involcan is not longer tied to the poor communication of Pevolca and is alerting the island about much more stronger deformation than seen in 2011.

We urgently inform you about the observed shift of the GPS network Canaria (Nagoya Univ ITER + + GRAFCAN) who is operating the Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias under the direction of Dr. Takeshi Sagiya (Professor of Nagoya University and Scientific Collaborator INVOLCAN).

GPS STATION FRONTERA:

During the last 2 days there has been horizontal eastward displacement of 2 cm and northward of 3 cm. The vertical displacement was 2 cm.
These data clearly reflect deformación (a process of movement of magma underground and the source responsible for this deformation is in the central-western part of the island of El Hierro) in conjunction with data from recent seismic activity.

The movements recorded during the last 2 days are real and much faster than those observed last year 2011.



The situation is ongoing, important updates will follow. Earthquake-report.com has indepth coverage of the status, and is updated several times during the day.

Source: earthquake-report.com, volcanodiscovery.com

[gdpetti]

Pressure continued to cause wide-spread rock fracturing underground and cause small intrusions of fluids. Now, the re-appearance of tremor could mean that magma is moving again somewhere underneath the island. Where to and whether or not it might reach the surface and initiate a new eruption is difficult to know at the moment. It is essential to continue to monitor location and magnitude of earthquakes.

Reminds me of the Gulf with all the known methane that BP et al are so in love of drilling into. Spreading the 'love' perhaps? Seems in El Hierro area, Gaia is doing it herself, looking for some crack in the facade to leak out from.

[knickgnat]

I can't remember which side of the island can fall into the sea w/large eq.(or volcano eruption)...any info on this?

[LightEcho]

Thanks for this alert! This could become a serious release of a destructive tsunami.

[FarmerJohn]

You're thinking of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma.

[KenGin31]

Maybe it'll wipe out D.C.

[gdpetti]

El Heirro – 580 earthquakes from Monday to Wednesday
by ROBERT on JUNE 27, 2012

Alert status raised to yellow – “An eruption could be imminent,” says one website.

Strong deformation detected


El Hierro latest quakes-27Jun12-Credit AVCAM.jpg
According to INVOLCAN, significant and rapid inflation has been measured in the southern part of the island of El Hierro during the past two days.

This deformation is most likely caused by the accumulating magma underneath, and is much faster than that observed last year 2011 prior to the eruption south of La Restinga.

A “yellow alert” has been declared for the El Verodal or the western tip of the island and the southern area in the El Julan bay, where most quakes are located, and an eruption could be imminent.

Yesterday, 26 June, saw a record number of 234 quakes greater than M1.4,
most of them larger than M2 and 6 larger than M3, all at about 18-20 km depth.

According to the extinction protocol website, about 580 earthquakes were registered from Monday to Wednesday. Thirty of them greater than magnitude 3 on the Richter scale.

See:
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/el-h...tion-2011.html

See also:
http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpre...uake-activity/

Thanks to Tim Austin and Wanda for these links

====
fair use http://iceagenow.info/2012/06/el-hei...day-wednesday/

[jed turtle]

Intensifying seismic and volcanic activity lifts Canary Island

June 29, 2012 – CANARY ISLANDS - Following days of almost continual earthquakes, residents of the small Canary island of El Hierro are once again living in fear of a volcanic eruption as their island begins to lift. According to the National Geographic Institute of Spain, increases in seismic activity on the island has seen literally hundreds of earthquakes, known as a swarm, shaking the island and gradually increasing in strength since June 25. Around 750 earthquakes have been recorded although few have been strong enough to be felt by the residents until the last two days. The island has been placed on yellow alert by the security committee in charge of operations as the earthquakes increase. The largest so far was registered at 4.0 on the Richter scale on Wednesday June 27. More frightening for the approximately 10,000 residents is the fact that a bulge has developed in the island, lifting it five centimeters in four days. Whereas the volcanic activity of 2011 was based out at sea, this time the magma appears to be forming right underneath the island and the pressure is building. Scientists on the island are using the position of the earthquake epicenters to try and work out where the magma from the volcano will come to the surface. The longer it takes to find a vent, the more the pressure from the magma will grow and the larger any possible eruption is likely to be. Earthquake Report says that PEVOLCA (Civil Protection from Volcanic Risk) has said that there is acceleration in the flow of magma, with a “clear process of inflation.” –Digital Journal
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/327552

[packyderms_wife]

Was watching a volcano show, on PBS, the other night it was one of the travel shows global treker I think. Anyway, they were visiting all of the major volcanoes of the world and when the came to the Canary Islands and La Palma the local volcano expert stated that the seven volcanoes of the canary islands are all connected and that the rock/lava is the same from all of the cones making the canary islands volcanic system a super volcano. I haven't had time to do any further research on the topic so am throwing this out there for someone that might have time to look into it some more.

K-

[Publius]

Its still at it and now their saying the whole island has risen up 9cm from all the volcanic pressure. Saying some of the quakes can be felt on La Palma.

[blueinterceptor]

How long to evacuate an island?

[Lilbitsnana]

Its still at it and now their saying the whole island has risen up 9cm from all the volcanic pressure. Saying some of the quakes can be felt on La Palma.

For folks that don't know the conversion, that would be 3.54 inches.

[packyderms_wife]

For folks that don't know the conversion, that would be 3.54 inches.

which doesn't sound like much... until you realize that this is a super volcano about to erupt and then it becomes significant.

K-

[Publius]

I'm reading some new reports and it sounds like this volcano will blow, but where it will blowout and when is just a matter of time.