Tirelessly updating Avalon on the El Hierro eruption.

[randles]

The Pride of the People, for this is El Hierro..

A moving story from the Director of Diario El Hierro


Yesterday I broke. I broke when I went up to El Pinar with a large convoy of vehicles of residents of La Restinga. I wanted to be an evacuee More than that, I wanted to feel, in my own bones, the feeling that you have when you have to evacuate your house, hurriedly, and for the second time as the volcano seemed to rise above a sea of dark and gloominess .

And I could not help. Perhaps I contained so many feelings for weeks. For so many unexpressed feelings. This is because the volcano has stolen the family time, friends ... It has have stolen the serenity always present in our beautiful island. Yes, I broke my heart yesterday, in the solitude of my car, as he climbed the winding road towards El Pinar, along with hundreds of people from La Restinga, a pride of people yesterday demonstrated once more, the breed of which they are made, of course without prejudice to all people of Frontera or the rest of the island who are suffering the virulence of a volcano that strangles us.

Yesterday I was an evacuee more, along with the other residents of La Restinga. We received the eviction notice while the other people that we were at that time in the village. And we went to the meeting point in the football field. And from there we reported.

Honestly, I felt proud of my people of El Hierro, of patience and serenity, his example of civility, peace of mind even when it is already the second evacuation.

From El Golfo to La Restinga, La Caleta to La Villa, of Timijiraque to Echedo, from the San Andres Mocanal; de Isora at The Tamadauste, through each and every one of the people of this island, once again, we be absolutely proud of the example has been given to the world. This is El Hierro. We are El Hierro.

Sergio Gutierrez

[randles]

New images of the eruptive focus taken from the GES helicopter early in the morning, offered by the Government of the Canary Islands.

You can see the constant bubbling and brown hues that acquires the sea in the emitter point.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VukCO_3vMxg

Picture taken today by | GELMERT Finol | eruption in the area of # ElHierro http://pic.twitter.com/eDySuosp

[randles]

Ortiz met with the mayors of El Pinar and Frontera to study the needs of evacuees
http://www.gobcan.es/noticias/index.....htm&id=144493

11/06/2011 ... 18:30 - Ministry of Economy, Finance and Security

IGN registered yesterday, Saturday, a total of 36 earthquakes in El Hierro have the largest a magnitude of 3.9

The current eruptive process subaerial had two episodes in the header to reach the first, a height of 20 meters

The Minister of Economy, Finance and Security of the Canary Islands and PEVOLCA director, Javier González Ortiz, this morning visited the municipalities of El Pinar and Frontera where he held separate meetings with the mayors working of such municipalities, in order to meet about the needs of evacuated citizens and businesses affected by the eruptive process in the face of future aid provided by the Government of the Canary Islands.

As for the evolution of the eruptive process of El Hierro, the volcano monitoring network monitoring 24 hours of National Geographic Institute (IGN) has confirmed the direction of the Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk Islands (PEVOLCA), which for on November 5 36 earthquakes were located, four of which were felt by the population. The biggest of them all, recorded shortly before 10:00 am, had a magnitude of 3.9 on the Richter scale and was felt with maximum intensity of IV in the town of Frontera. This event was located at sea, 20 miles deep and about two miles from the coast.

The rest of the events recorded are located in the same area, aligned NNW / SSE in the sea, forming two distinct groups. The first is located between 14 and 15 kilometers deep and the second between 20 and 23 kilometers. In total, since the day July 17, 2011 events have been found 11.400.

Moreover, the level of tremor has remained with variability similar to that presented before the earthquake of 4.4 on the day before. Regular pulses in time, are of lower amplitude than those recorded the previous 24 hours.

In the afternoon at 18:00 and 18:05 hours, the current eruptive process subaerial had two episodes in the header area, each lasting approximately one minute. The former reached a height of approximately 20 meters above the sea surface and the emission gases consisted of fine particles that drove volcanic material. The second had the same behavior, although with less magnitude.

Deformation

As for the deformations, the scientists say reports that present the same pattern of behavior as in previous days.

Evolution of the stain at sea

In a flyby of the IGN staff, on board a helicopter of the Emergency and Rescue Group (GES) of the Canary Islands, took photographs that can be seen several emission points, blue-green, similar to those shown in previous days.
.

[Hervé]

laprovincia.es »Last Minute El Hierro

Chronicle of a forecasted eruption
JUAN CARLOS CARRACEDO / vulcanologist

At dawn on October 10, 2011 earthquakes which have occurred in El Hierro since mid-July suddenly stopped coming, recorded with great precision by the National Geographic Institute (IGN). The seismic tremors were replaced by volcanic tremor, with very long period signals, characteristic of the passage of magma inside an eruption pipe.

[see posts on this page(starts at post # 761)]

By mid-morning news began to spread about a possible submarine eruption at 8-10 km south of the island and about 1,000 feet deep, yet to be confirmed definitively.

The underwater eruption must have been the culmination of a process of almost three months, when a pocket of magma was emplaced at the base of the oceanic crust. Since then the hypocentral depth migrated south keeping searching an area ripe for surfacing. In this migration it finally connected with one of the ridges of the island, the Mid South, providing a spectacular underwater extension of about 40 kilometers long, reaching depth of 3,200 meters.

This submarine ridge or rift, where they have located many of the recent eruptions of El Hierro, is a crustal area of ​​greatest weakness due to injections of magma associated with previous eruptions, and possibly the permanence of a "thermal memory" which would have allowed, finally, the relatively rapid exit of magma to the surface, in this case on the side of the submarine rift.

El Hierro, with little more than a million years, is the youngest island of the Canaries. Located next to the neighboring island of La Palma, on the western edge of the archipelago, lies on an ocean floor between 3,500 and 4,000 meters deep.

An underwater eruption is not exceptional in oceanic islands like the Canaries, but on the contrary, there are more underwater eruptions than subaerial which makes it logical considering that the underwater part of these islands is about 90% of the total volume.

Despite being the youngest island of the Canary Islands, El Hierro has no historical volcanism, which is not the case for La Palma, Tenerife and even Lanzarote. In 1793 considerable magnitude earthquake rocked the island of El Hierro between 27 March and 15 June, causing great fear among the population.

Fearing a major catastrophe (volcanic eruption), the first plan of escape from an island was even developed in the history of the Canary Islands, which included measures for the protection of the population. The most intense tremors were recorded in the area of ​​the Gulf and then spread throughout the island. As of May 8 the tremors were so intense that people left their homes and slept in the open. Everyone expected any time now a major volcanic eruption. The epicenter again located in the Gulf from June 15, resulting in collapses and affecting some homes. Finally, they decreased in intensity until they disappeared and the island returned to normal, without producing the dreaded eruption, or it was underwater and without any appreciable resulting earthquakes.

The Padrón chronic Darias Dacio (1929), depicting the story of this seismic crisis of El Hierro, does not refer to an eruption, but rather the contrary, by clearly indicating that the planned measures would have been implemented "if the volcanism had destroyed the island," suggesting that the eruption did not occur.

Looking at the pattern followed by earthquakes, the ones most insignificant in risks but very useful in following the evolution of the phenomenon, we see that they initially started north of the island and the basin of the Gulf. Then, gradually increasing in magnitude while migrating south, focusing in the area of the Julan and the Sea of ​​Calm, with a tendency to drift further out to sea and into the Mid-South.

Even more illustrative is the visualization of the depth of these earthquakes. Given that the base of the oceanic crust is at a depth of 10-12 kilometers, most of the epicenters are concentrated initially at the interface, without coming to the surface. On the contrary, over time, seismic sources gained depth and moved laterally to the south.

This behavior seems to suggest that magma pockets, lighter than the mantle material, rose and struck the base of the oceanic crust, where they accumulated and expanded into a mushroom-shaped head. This phenomenon may be due to the density contrast between the mantle and crust, so that the magma emerging from the mantle is trapped at the base of the oceanic crust (Mohorovicic discontinuity), as it has a similar or slightly inferior density than the crust.

The subsequent upward pressure of the magma bulges the crust generating earthquakes and causing swelling in the area of ​​the island measured with GPS and which has hovered around the 40 mm vertical displacement.

If this outbreak is confirmed by the features that have been mentioned (and it appears that it will), it will be tight as a glove to scientific forecasts. It occurs in the youngest island, now at the vertical of the mantle thermal anomaly which generated the archipelago, with the largest probability of occurrence in the islands of El Hierro and La Palma.

It's underwater, which is consistent with the bulk of the islands being underwater, and has been located in one of the active rifts, volcanological structures of great interest because they structured and shaped the islands, which focus eruptions and therefore are eruption risks and responsible -- at scales of hundreds of thousands of years -- for causing massive gravitational landslides, including the latest in the archipelago as it's precisely what has made the escarpment of the Gulf, a 1,400 m vertical cut which occurred about 100,000 years ago.

THE ARTICLE IS SIGNED BY volcanologists JUAN CARLOS CARRACEDO, JOSÉ LUIS FERNÁNDEZ TURIEL, FRANCISCO JOSÉ PÉREZ TORRADO, ALEJANDRO RODRÍGUEZ-GONZÁLEZ, VALENTÍN TROLL and SEBASTIAN WIESMAIER

[randles]

@ PrensaElHierro Cabildo de El Hierro
The residents of La Restinga in the control queue to get into their homes for 1 hour, Finol Gelmert. pic.twitter.com/rhVXLq2t

[randles]

Posted by Amzer Zo (here)
[IMG] Chronicle of a forecasted eruption
JUAN CARLOS CARRACEDO / vulcanologist

At dawn on October 10, 2011 earthquakes which have occurred in El Hierro since mid-July suddenly stopped coming, recorded with great precision

Thank You

I really enjoyed reading that !

[randles]

http://www.gobcan.es/noticias/index.....htm&id=144496



INVOLCAN confirms a further increase in carbon dioxide emissions in El Hierro

11/06/2011 ... 20:06 - Ministry of Economy, Finance and Security

The new results show an emission of 1218 ± 46 tonnes per day

The volcanological Institute of the Canaries (INVOLCAN) confirmed the direction of the Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk (PEVOLCA) a further increase in the diffuse emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere by the volcano of El Hierro. The measured emission rate has reached 1218 ± 46 tons per day, the highest value observed since the beginning of magmatic reactivation being recorded in El Hierro.

Since last July 21, 2011 INVOLCAN 7250 has materialized over diffuse flux measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) through numerous scientific investigations carried out throughout the building subaerial volcanic island of El Hierro (278 km2), and in which they have collaborated and collaborate a significant group of volunteers based in the Canary Islands. The scientific purpose of these campaigns is to contribute to the improvement and optimization of monitoring volcanic gases as are the driving force of volcanic eruptions.

The registration of the diffuse emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) by the volcano of El Hierro from July 21 to date ranges from 331 to 1218 ± 16 ± 46 tonnes per day. Following the work of diffuse emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) made ​​by the group El Hierro volcanological ITER since 1997, now within the INVOLCAN, has been established that the average value of the diffuse emission dioxide (CO2) by the volcano of El Hierro is 345 tons per day. On October 6, 2011 and prior to the submarine eruption occurred southwest of La Restinga diffuse emission rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached 990 ± 49 tons per day, an emission rate 2.8 times higher than average normal. Recent results show that the emission rate is about 3.5 times the normal average.

The Directorate of the Civil Protection Special Plan and Emergency Response for Volcanic Risk in the Canary Islands (PEVOLCA) points out that the diffuse emission of CO2 is one of the parameters of a volcanic eruption precursors but has to be assessed in conjunction with other such as deformation, and seismicity depth. It should be remembered that we are immersed in an eruptive process underway in the south of the island, which generates greenhouse gas emissions in the Earth's surface.

The management also strongly encourage people across the island to focus their attention on the messages offered by the competent authorities which assists the Scientific Committee. Public authorities have the devices and means to cope with a change in the current situation with the media, at the right time, precise instructions for the population.

[randles]

Here is the tv news from my Islands. Evacuees were allowed back to their homes today for only one hour, to collect clothes, needy things, and to leave food and water for their animals..

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ds2smvyTaEI

[Hervé]

From Earthquake-report.com:

Update 06/11 – 20:06 UTC :

Understanding the current and next phase of the eruption.
Earthquake-report.com received a note from Patrick Allard, Directeur de recherche CNRS, Paris, on the current and expected El Hierro events, and is happy to share it with our readers:

According to today’s last observations, I agree with Raymomd that the eruption is in a transition phase between purely submarine and Surtseyan-type subaerial, and that the relative calm in the afternoon could have simply resulted from partial removal (collapse?) of the upper part of the new volcanic cone.

From my experience, a clear change towards subaerial activity will be associated with a change in gas composition, that will be manifested in the gas smell: instead of ‘rotten egg’ (i.e. H2S emission), Raymond and local people will start smelling SO2 emission (i.e. sulfur from striking matchstick).

Sulfur dioxide is charactersitic of high temperature magmatic gases, whereas H2S is more typical of lower temperature hydrothermal gases or residual magmatic gases that have previously reacted with liquid water.

The main gas precursor released during such a deep seismogenic phase of a basaltic eruption is carbon dioxide, the earliest exsolving magmatic volatile. Huge amounts of magma-derived CO2 should currently be being released from the eruptive vents and through sea water, generating the jacuzzi and the billions of gas bubbles bursting at the sea surface. Therefore, measuring/monitoring both the chemical composition and the mass output of emitted volcanic gases should become an important priority during next days and weeks.

[Hervé]

Posted by randles (here)
http://www.gobcan.es/noticias/index.....htm&id=144496



[...]

... which generates greenhouse gas emissions in the Earth's surface.

[...]

Arrrghh! I hate it when political flatulence gets into the mix of smelly volcanic emanations!

See?

There is this big, huge, mastodon of a woolly mammoth standing in that article's room!

... greenhouse gases... these are supposed to be up in the air and perform some kind of magical, alchemical transmutation of sun rays so that the atmosphere heats up and we all boil or something like that unless carbon taxes save us from the frog experiment...

So, here is the mammoth: unless I am completely mistaken... CO2 is heavier than air and collects in basements, etc... so how can it be a "greenhouse gas" up in the air?

CO2 density: 1.562 kg/m3

Air, at sea level and at 15°C according to ISA (International Standard Atmosphere), has a density of approximately 1.22521 kg/m3.

Arrrghhh... politicians and science: not miscible!

[sygh]

Well, it seems El Hierro has finally made MSNBC headlines.

Sorry I couldn't do better than a link on this. The pictures are very clear... worth seeing.

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news...se-island-port

[Guest]

Hi Randles,

Want to say hallo and let you know always thinking of you and praying for you and the people of the Canaries -had cafe many a morning with this thread. Thank you to everyone here who has posted all of the information and for updating the world.

Nora

we are all related

[Hervé]

From a Spanish forum:

Garoé wrote:
Hi all! I followed this for some time. I am a geologist from Murcia.

Outline of the phenomenon evolution, July-present.




1. Start of the first seismic swarm.

The ascent of the magma from the mantle causes the residual magma from the last eruption in the magma chamber to warm up (this chamber is clearly visible on the tomographic scans*. Its centre and its enveloping surface are delineated by all the earthquake hypocentres from the first swarm).

In July, August and part of September, the magma in this chamber gets differentiated and stratified. Incompatible elements, gases and fluids are concentrated at the top

2. Change in direction of epicentres

The magma chamber enlarges and progresses southward deepening due to the shape of the crust and volcanic edifice at depth. This is indicated by the epicenters.

At the start of the eruption, first the gases, fluids and other elements exude from the magma. Subsequently the different types of magma are ejected, basaltic, trachybasaltic and trachytic.


3. A new seismic swarm appears in the Frontera area.

Started by the depressurization of the first magma chamber. This speeds up the ascent of a mass of mantellic magma, which fractures the base of the crust to feed the first magma chamber. This process is accompanied by earthquakes of greater magnitude in creating the supply pipes and their widening.


4. New vents open.

It is possible that they will open in the north, but because of the great and almost abyssal depth, they will quickly get plugged. The spectacular eruption at La Restinga is strengthened and increased. It is not excluded that the fissure progresses along the south ridge towards La Restinga nor is an evolution towards a surtseyan eruption...

The chamber being so well fed from the mantle, I suspect we'll have eruptions for a while. (timanfaya 6 years ...)

Regards to all


* The seismic tomography has been conducted by the geophysics department from the University of Granada (Jesus Ibañez et al) and clearly shows the shallow magma chamber in the tomography with an area of ​​low speed seismic waves, which coincides with the cloud of hypocenters of the first swarm .

The fiesta has really started!

=)

How exciting!





******************************
GiggleTranslate gave me a real tough time with this one! But the summary of the situation is about the most accurate.

[sygh]

Posted by Amzer Zo (here)

Posted by sygh (here)

Posted by Amzer Zo (here)
[...]

In short, Polly is truly Polycephalic!

Polycephalic (hee-hee) These pictures are phenominal. This really is the best case scenerio, right through the fissures. Really interesting.

Hi sygh!

I think you may have missed post #1335 where the land equivalent of fissure eruptions are shown next to Polly's?

In any case, best case scenario indeed!

Whoa! That's some mockup. Not going to think about what it could have been. Nope, the party ain't over till it's over.
Just had to edit this message. I hadn't read your latest post, Zo, post #1373, yet; guess I should have said fiesta instead of party. Yup, this party's just begun.

[Hervé]

Posted by sygh (here)

Posted by Amzer Zo (here)

Hi sygh!

I think you may have missed post #1335 where the land equivalent of fissure eruptions are shown next to Polly's?

In any case, best case scenario indeed!

Whoa! That's some mockup. Not going to think about what it could have been. Nope, the party ain't over till it's over.

[...]

Probably not much more than what happened at kilauwea not that long ago:

Here one can see the fissures/cracks/fractures nicely lining up:

Close up:

[Hervé]

Ramon Margalef has finally reappeared out of the GPS dead zone after two (2) days diasappearance in it:

[Hervé]

Posted by sygh (here)
Well, it seems El Hierro has finally made MSNBC headlines.

Sorry I couldn't do better than a link on this. The pictures are very clear... worth seeing.

[...]

For the original shots from the Canaria government, here is their flicker pages with the most beautiful shots:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/presica...ream/lightbox/

Like this one:

... all without the doom & gloomers comments...

[Hervé]

A girl watching the bubbling from the coast of La Restinga.

Scientists believe there may be several eruptive processes in El Hierro

The research suggests that the magma chamber located beneath the earth's crust could be transmitting power to two eruptions vertically differentiated, each acting on their own.


GUERRA PEDRO: What if El Hierro had several eruptive processes in place? The group of scientists taking the vital signs on the Meridian island no longer dares to ensure that under the structure of the youngest island of the Canaries there is currently a single eruptive process that winds into the depths. With the new scenario that has been generated over the past week, with the expulsion of magmatic material in the south and strong earthquakes in the north, the possibility that at present there are at least two distinct eruptive processes, that could be acting on their own on each side of the island can not be ruled out .

What does seem clear is that the volcano of El Hierro hides a huge amount of magma. After the most recent calculations made, above all, from the deformation of the island, the amount of magmatic material that is hidden in the depths is about a cubic kilometer, that is, one billion cubic meters, an amount twenty times higher than initially thought. This, scientists say, is enough to generate magma eruption similar to that which fueled the Timanfaya in Lanzarote for six years in several stages from 1730 to 1736. All this, of course, assuming that the volcano decides to push out all of the material in it, something that does not always happen. Not to be ruled out at this time is that El Hierro can produce a process that takes up more than a year to complete, although it can be concluded within days.

But scientists are already working with the idea that there may be at least two eruptive processes underway, one in the north and another in the south. A magma chamber located beneath the crust would house the number of cubic kilometer of magma, and from there it could be transmitting energy apart vertically in two different processes. This theory would explain perfectly the situation in recent days in El Hierro.

Since last October 10, an open fissure eruption in the south, in the depths of the Sea of Calm, ejected magma at a depth of about two hundred meters. With nearly a month after the eruption and it seemed that it had slowed down after a very busy first week. Since last Thursday, new sulfur spots appeared, this time nearer the coast. The ones that arrived on Saturday even caused at least two explosions and ejected ash and stones about twenty meters high. Probably the volcanic edifice, built with the expulsion of magma, has grown taller and generates the explosions, which is why on Saturday the town of La Restinga was evacuated due to the risk of much more dangerous explosions occurring.


North different scenario
In the north the scene is different. There is no evidence that magma is rising through any fissure and the situation is of a considerable seismic activity, which on Friday came to cause an earthquake of 4.4 degrees on the Richter scale and was felt even in Tenerife and La Gomera. After the earthquake there were other events throughout Saturday and Sunday which reached magnitude 3.9 degrees on the Richter scale, the last of them, yesterday afternoon.

For these two differentiated venues, scientists are begining to think that it is possible that El Hierro is producing two different eruptive phenomena, although the possibility that it is a single one where magma flow along a track through the depths of the island is not discarded either. Even a third theory considers the possibility that a third process also searches out through the center of the island. The latter is based on the earthquakes which were felt in El Hierro during the last week, a group of them is associated with a depth of around 20-25 km and another located at depth between 10-15 km . What seems quite clear is that the volcano of El Hierro is not any volcano: it has enough magmatic material in reserves to not rule out any theory.

[Hervé]

From Earthquake-report.com:

Update 06/11 – 21:34 UTC :
Raymond is still at his (safe) viewpoint position and says that he is smelling a faint sulfurous odor. He isn’t seeing the Jacuzzi in the dark, but he hopes to see the red glow of the magma later at night as he sees that the harmonic tremor is still saturated and as the earthquake activity has increased again.

Update 06/11 – 21:57 UTC :
PEVOLCA confirms a further increase in carbon dioxide emissions in El Hierro (see also Patrick Allard comment just below). The emission of CO2 is one of the parameters of a volcanic eruption precursors but has to be assessed jointly with others, such as deformation and seismicity depth.

Update 06/11 – 22:49 UTC :
We have a present for our volcano stone enthusiastic readers. A click on the picture will link to a gallery with detailed images of found pumice:

Bubbles... plenty of 'em!

[Hervé]

Talking of bubbles and the CO2 releases at El Hierro, here is the evaluation of an expert:

Carl le Strange says:
November 6, 2011 at 23:24
Now I am going to say something that will make people jump…

The CO2 level is ONLY 3,5 times higher than the background average release of the island of El Hierro.

What stumps me is not high levels of CO2, it is that the levels are unusually LOW.
Heck, it should be at least 10 times higher at a volcano that is not gassy. And heavens know Bob [Polly] is really gassy.

So where the hork does the CO2 go then?

Well, as long as the fissure of Bob [Polly] remains open the CO2 will mainly be dissolved into the water as carboacids, and some will be released out at sea as CO2 gas.

If, and I say if, Bob's fissure closes before the eruption is over, and a fissure opens on the island we will most likely see something like 1000 or more tons of CO2 being released per hour. And that is still counted low.

Compare the numbers against Stromboli and Etna for instance, they are releasing the above stated numbers.