Tirelessly updating Avalon on the El Hierro eruption.

[randles]

Fragment emitted by the underwater eruption in El Hierro EFE

The volcanic material could be from expanded Perlite

ANA SANTANA / EFE

The fragments emitted by the submarine eruption in El Hierro may contain perlite inside that has expanded, ie white volcanic glasses rich in silica and high water content, which suffered a natural expansion process and if confirmed this hypothesis, could be the first time you see this phenomenon.

This was stated by the geologist Juan Jesús Coello (Efe) in an interview in which he said that as far as he knows, this material has not been described in previous eruptions in the Canaries or the rest of the world.

The geologist indicates that the products released to date by the underwater eruption in the southern ridge of El Hierro are bits floating on globe shape, decimeter-sized, lightweight volcanic glass.

Some of the fragments have a protrusion or bulge of keel elongated way and according to chemical analysis conducted by the universities of La Laguna and Barcelona, ​​and the Center for Scientific Research, the crust is formed by a volcanic glass which is transparent, and dark brown basaltic composition, called sideromelana.

The interior consists of two types of volcanic glasses the first, opaque black, basaltic and has also called taquilita.

The second, which forms the bulk of the total volume of the floating fragments, is a vesicular volcanic glass snow white to gray-white.

Its composition is that of a trachyte or rhyolite, with 65 percent or more by volume of silica, a soft texture and a lower density than water.

Juan Jesús Coello indicates that this silica-rich volcanic glass could come from the natural expansion of volcanic materials originating from previous eruptions and deposited on the seabed near the current point of emission.

The expansion would have been produced by the release in the form of vapor, water molecules present in these materials, and would have been caused by an abrupt warming after they accumulated on basaltic lava fragments originating from the ongoing eruption.

For the chemical composition of this glass and the environment in which the eruption, geologist considered more likely the hypothesis that the material is an expanded perlite.

The main feature of perlites, which are named for their bright shiny circular fracture, is its high content of water molecules, from 2 to 6 percent by volume.

Perlite would have formed on the seabed by the hydration of volcanic glass called hialoclastita. The hialoclastitas are glass splinters breakage caused by magma coming into contact with water and cooling suddenly.

For artificial expansion the beads are crushed to the desired grain size and then subjected to rapid heating in industrial furnaces, until they reach temperatures between 760 and 890 degrees Celsius.

The beads have a multitude of applications: filtration processes, thermal insulation, improved growing media and inert fillers, among others.

In the case of those issued by the eruption in El Hierro it would be a natural expansion process, not artificial, which occurred at a pressure of 20 to 30 atmospheres from -200 to 300 meters deep. The water content of perlite molecular suffered natural expansion in the seabed of La Restinga can be quite higher than that expand artificially.

Other materials that could have produced this white glass similar expansion are zeolites, hydrated silicates whose name, Greek for "Zeos" boil, and "lithos," stone, derived from steam and becomes more swollen when heated, a property called intumescence.

Like perlite, zeolites are common products of the alteration of volcanic glass.

In any case, the geologist indicates that this is an unconfirmed hypothesis, so it is too early to assess the potential significance of this phenomenon.

[randles]

The National Seismic Network said that material damage from the earthquake in El Hierro has been "invisible" to the island

IRIN | Madrid

The director of the National Geographic Institute, Emilio Carreño, stated on Friday that the material damage caused by the earthquake of magnitude 4.6 degrees this morning northwest of the town of Frontera (El Hierro), one of the 11,000 that have been registered since the beginning of the activity, has been "imperceptible".

Speaking to Europa Press, Carreño said that this earthquake has been of "greater magnitude" which had occurred so far in the series of earthquakes recorded to date since the process began on the island and pointed that the latter can be seen that the magnitude has increased "as planned" and that there has been a "volcanic tremor".

Thus, the director of the National Seismic Network explained that the earthquake occurred at the base of the crust, "offshore" of the island, unlike that of the peninsula that is continental, and pointed out that, although "purely tectonic" is "implied that there is some pushing and magma produced by this break in the base of the crust," but has avoided ruling on whether it could wash out to the outside.

"We saw that the eruption in La Restinga occurred after an earthquake of magnitude 4.3 which probably broke the crust and magma somewhere found a way out. There have been taking place major earthquakes and an eruption does not necessarily have to occur, "he remarked.

Thus, Carreno told that since records began earthquakes on the island have already been analyzed "over 11,000" in the area from north to south, while during the year in Spain are usually calculated "about 6,000 earthquakes ". "In three months it has been done the work of a year," he stated.

Furthermore, despite that in the area of La Restinga in the south of the island, where there has been the eruption of the volcano, the director of the National has reported that "curiously" earthquakes are having their "epicenter in the North of the island. ""On the other side and into the sea," he stated.

[Hervé]

Sreenshots of the newly online La Restinga webcams:

That was before sunset... now it's the absent night life of La Restinga...

[Hervé]

Ramon Margalef is back to La Estaca:

From La Estaca webcam.

Plume meandering as of November 9:

[Hervé]

Posted by randles (here)

Fragment emitted by the underwater eruption in El Hierro EFE

The volcanic material could be from expanded Perlite

[...]

Caraccedo: +1... Barcelona Prof Torrente: -0

(see post # 1276, post # 1289, 1296, post # 1438 and post # 1456)

For a PDF of the submitted paper (Spanish, but diagrams speak by themselves): http://www.avcan.org/varios/Informe_restingolitas.pdf

For the same as in PDF: http://www.avcan.org/?m=Noticias&a=noticia&N=911

[Hervé]

Not sure what kind of tune Polly is playing with her El Hierro hamonic tremors organ pipes...

Looks like some Wagner or something..

[randles]

Scientists say there is a pocket of Magma more than 1 km3 originating in the north of the island

Ready for an eruption in the north
From: antena3canarias | November 11, 2011 |
Scientists say there is a pocket of Magma more than 1 km3 originating in the north of the island

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=pmftN72GFOs

antena3canarias.com | Canaries | Updated on 11/11/2011 at 19:08 hours

A pocket of magma, that is seeking outlets to the surface and earthquakes are indications of this appears at first glance While the volcano has gone to sleep in the north, the seismic activity is reactivated, it is the same phenomenon and the explanation is that now the injection process of magma from the crust to the surface continues in the north, just where earthquakes are occurring.

[randles]

Plagues of jellyfish, squid dead and unseen species
From: antena3canarias | November 11, 2011 |
They have called for studies to determine whether these phenomena are related to submarine eruption in El Hierro

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=jgdH-3tujXo

[Hervé]

Margalef heading to El Golfo:

[randles]

On Thursday, a total of 46 earthquakes were registered in El Hierro

DIARIOELHIERRO.ES, writing (11.11.2011. 21:08 pm)

The National Geographic Institute (IGN) has confirmed to the direction of the Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk Islands (Pevolca) that during the day of November 10, 46 earthquakes were located, one of them felt by the population, although its intensity has not yet been realized.

The largest of the events had a magnitude 3.5 on the Richter scale and intensity III was recorded at 18:31 hours NW of the town of Frontera, 3 kilometers from the coast at a depth of 21 kilometers.

The rest of the movements recorded were located mainly in the area of the Gulf, aligned NNW / SSE from the sea to the center of the island, forming two distinct groups: the first between 14 and 17 kilometers and the second between the 20 to 23 kilometers. In total, since the day July 17, 2011 11 445 events have been found.

TREMOR

On the other hand, the tremor level remained stable until 10 am. From that time began a slight increase which continued until 20:00. From that moment passed and presented to increase slightly higher frequency pulses to the end of the day.

DEFORMATION

As for the deformations be noted that the deformation monitoring stations located in the eastern El Golfo yesterday showed a slight tendency towards the south. In the remaining stations was maintained the pattern of deformation in recent days.

STAIN

During the day there have been seen several new contributions of material without bubbling. The material began to be seen in a ring eventually dispersed throughout the currents. By watching closely through photographs taken by the the Civil Guard were multiple bubbles, static, sizes ranging from a few mm and 10 cm, approximately.

RECOMMENDATIONS

As reported this afternoon, the direction of the the Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk (Pevolca) recalled that the Scientific Committee considers to be "expected" earthquakes with a magnitude greater than 4.6, so it emphasizes the need for people follow the recommendations set out in case of earthquake.

Refer to guidelines of what to do in the event of an earthquake http://www.emergenciaselhierro.org/i...229&Itemid=383

[Hervé]

Civil War for the scientific management of El Hierro.

Canary raises a complaint to the CSIC and the Ministry of Science for a meeting convened yesterday, outside the body created to coordinate crisis management.

MADRID, JAVIER SALAS 11/11/2011 9:29

The volcanic crisis that shakes the island of El Hierro struck yesterday the offices of the scientific institutions that monitor the output of the magma, in an episode of escalating disagreements between researchers and authorities for the technical management of this trance. Yesterday, after a month of eruption, the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) organized a meeting between scientists from institutions with competence in the volcanic risk in order to share the official data collected by the crisis committee that coordinates the Canary Islands Government from El Hierro. A meeting sat like salt in the open wound of the scientific bodies of the archipelago, which from the beginning haven't been given any consideration by researchers from the CSIC and the National Geological Institute (IGN), designated as official technical advisory committee crisis (Pevolca).

The director of the Canarian Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society (ACIISI), Juan Ruiz Alzola, yesterday sent a letter of protest to President of CSIC, Rafael Rodrigo, with copies to the Secretary of State for Research, Philippe Pétriz in criticizing the holding of this meeting because it involves pooling the data from a small group of scientists and outside the agency specifically created to coordinate the data. On October 21 the Canary Islands Government established a scientific committee that would serve to improve relations between all the agencies involved, to share the data collected and to build bridges between Madrid and the Canaries. The chairman of this committee, Andrea Brown, sanctioned the CSIC call as "unfortunate, at least" because there is already a body, which she chairs, to perform this task of coordinating capabilities of the various areas involved in the management of a seismic-volcanic crisis. "It's one thing is to do a work-shop among scientists on an issue and something else to discuss the management being conducted from the Pevolca, when there is a group created for this, in which the CSIC is represented," regrets Brito, director of the Instituto Tecnológico de Canarias (ITC).

An institutional detail

At the end of the meeting on the campus of the Council, its vice president, Francisco Montero de Espinosa, was convinced that "it is inconceivable that conflicts arise on a scientific meeting." According to vice president of the CSIC, it was "only" a meeting between experts to "make a series of recommendations" and denied it is establish as a separated group as one group with decision-making capacity. Even so, he left the door open to call further meetings of this group, if circumstances changed, to update its recommendations. Montero de Espinosa said he would call Andrea Brito during the morning "for institutional detail, but would not necessarily do so to to agree with her conclusions."

The meeting convened by the Council reached three conclusions. For starters, the panel called for more instrumentation to be installed in the north of the island to listen precisely to tremor signal and rule out whether an open crack in that area of ​​El Hierro is releasing volcanic material through a second vent. Furthermore, it requested further collection of eruptive material for analysis. And finally, it was requested of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) that the research vessel Ramón Margalef, sent to El Hierro in the Canary Islands at the Government's request, be moved there.

His idea is that the boat continues surveying the seabed to follow the evolution of the volcano. "Researchers have asked to have one or two bathymetries a week, as concerns are that the volcanic cone grows into shallow water, which could lead to an explosive eruption," says Montero de Espinosa, who acknowledged that this proposal, as above, is more than a suggestion that must be considered by the IEO.

At this meeting of experts, it was noted that the deformation remains in the north of the island, up to 40 millimeters of swelling, which may indicate the existence of magma pushing out a new northern fissure. "It may well stay that way forever," said the vice president of the CSIC, who noted that most of the experts considered a second eruption under the waters of the Gulf unlikely.

Furthermore, the result of analysis of eruptive processes in El Hierro in the last 2,000 years was held in common . "According to this documentation," said Montero de Espinosa, "all indications are that the eruptive process is running out given the amount of magmatic material that the volcano has already kicked."

At the meeting attended by representatives of 11 CSIC research institutions, two canaries, the University of La Laguna (ULL) and Canary Islands Oceanic Platform (Plocan). Of these 11 institutions, six belong to the Coordinating Committee created by the Canaries, as IGN, the CSIC, the Geological and Mining Institute (IGME) and the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO), the Plocan and ULL. In addition, the committee includes experts from the University of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands volcanological Institute (InVolCan).

A meeting suspended

The Canary committee had set up with a stumble. The first meeting of this group with the aim to establish and adopt its rules of operation, on November 3, was suspended because the representative of CSIC, Joan Martí, for a prior commitment, and IGN, María José Blanco, who had to leave the meeting after aggravated the situation in El Hierro, were absent. "It was difficult to make decisions if we could not count on Pevolca" says Brown, so a second meeting was to convene for 14 November, which yesterday was still standing and no one had announced its cancellation.

On the other hand, InVolcan made ​​public yesterday some new evidence that a new eruptive phase may be brewing, as was a new peak of CO2 emissions, which so far has proven to be an almost infallible sign to announce eruptions. In addition, the IEO explained that in the Sea of ​​Calm, which houses the volcano in its midst, they get to measure temperatures up to 16 degrees above normal records (31° C versus 15°). The acidity of the water levels are extremely high, with a pH of up to 5.45 (normal is 8) and an acid concentration 100,000 times higher than normal [sic].

[Hervé]

Strongest so far (3.1 at 15:59):

For the day:

Frequencies spectrogram, the vertical streaks indicate “events” (tremors/EQs) whereas the horizontal ones reflect volcanic/magmatic activity:

From Wikipedia: A Harmonic tremor is a sustained release of seismic and/or infrasonic energy typically associated with the underground movement of magma and/or venting of volcanic gases from magma. Being a long-duration continuous signal from a temporally extended source, a volcanic tremor contrasts distinctly with transient sources of seismic radiation, such as tremors that are typically associated with earthquake and explosion.

How it's looking like now from Las Puntas de La Frontera:

Refresh your browser to get the latest traces

For the last 10 days, following the count of EQs as shown by the orange bars (≥ 2.0), it now shows a definite increase in seismic activity:

New cumulative graph starting October 10, 2011. The continuously changing scales keeps compressing the earlier graphs to the bottom and to the left!

Location of the EQs for the last 10 days:

Refresh your browser page to get the latest numbers and positions.

[Hervé]

Polly's Hot!

Infrared satellite pics from November 5 and 6:

[sygh]

It looks like there is going to be an erruption to the north after all. It also looks imminent. Maybe it will cut Poly off?


Just saw the infrared pic of the area. Poly is easy to spot.

[randles]

@noticiacanaria Noticias de Canarias
#foto La mancha de #ElHierro desde satélite #Canarias

[randles]

The volcano increases the emission of CO2 in El Hierro

IRIN, Valverde (11.12.2011. 10:45 am)

Scientists at the Institute of Technology and Renewable Energies (ITER), an agency of the Cabildo of Tenerife and now form part of volcanological Institute of the Canaries (Involcan), have made since last July more than 7500 measures dioxide diffuse flow (CO2) in El Hierro through numerous scientific surveys on volcanic gases diffuse emissions that have materialized over the entire surface of the island.

To date, the results reflect the record of an upward trend of the diffuse emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere by the volcano of El Hierro has reached 1481 / - 37 tonnes per day, an amount equivalent to 4 , 35 times the normal average value considered for the diffuse emission of CO2 in the island.

The purpose of these scientific surveys to assess spatio-temporal variations of the diffuse emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by the volcanic system of El Hierro during the recent earthquake-volcanic crisis.

These scientific surveys have failed to materialize due to Makavol project 'Strengthening the capacity of ID id to help reduce volcanic risk in the Macaronesia (MAC/3/C161)', which is being co-funded by the transnational cooperation European Union Madeira-Canary-Azores (MAC 2007-2013) and the collaboration of the Cabildo of Tenerife and El Hierro.

The reasons for realizing this type of scientific stem from the inability to obtain such information through permanent instrumental networks, to be absolutely convinced that the gases are the driving force of volcanic eruptions and the importance of carbon dioxide in programs for volcanic surveillance, since it is the second major component of volcanic gases after water vapor and its low solubility in molten silicitados - magma - causing carbon dioxide to escape with their ease of volcanic systems in depth.

Involcan is an institution demanded unanimously by the Senate (2005), Parliament of the Canary Islands (2006) and House of Representatives (2009) with the aim of contributing to improving and optimizing the management of volcanic risk in Spain.

[randles]

Image of the last Earthquake recorded today

IGN have registered 13 Earthquakes so far today

DIARIOELHIERRO.ES, writing (11.12.2011. 8:48 pm)

The National Geographic Institute (IGN) has recorded until 7:29 pm today, Saturday, November 12, a total of 13 earthquakes of between 16. and 2.3 magnitude on the Richter scale at a depth of between 16 and 22 kilometers.

According to the National Geographic Institute (IGN) collected by Diario EL HIERRO and could be subject to change, the 13 earthquakes have occurred in the northwest and west of Frontera.

Also, this Friday is registered in the Isle of Meridian a total of 43 earthquakes of between 1.6 and 4.6 degrees. Three of them came to be felt by the population and is located northwest of Frontera.

The first one, 4.6 degrees and a magnitude of IV-V in magnitude, occurred at 00.20 hours about 21 km depth and epicenter in the sea, the second occurred at 02.41 hours at about 20 km depth and reached the 3.4 degrees, and the third took place at 0530 hours with a magnitude of 3.1 degrees to about 24 kilometers deep.

[ulli]

I come here once every day. Thank you Randles and Amzer Zo, and all who help to compile this information.
I keep myself in awareness to place a lid on the area
that allows pressure to escape without a massive build up that can blow with deadly consequences.
Randles, you are amazing.

[randles]

The earthquake of M4.6 caused landslides from the Pozo de la Salud, to Sabinosa, Guinea and the Beaches

DIARIOELHIERRO.ES, writing (11.12.2011. 14:59 pm)

The earthquake of 4.6 magnitude on the Richter scale and intensity IV-V in the EMS-98 scale, caused rockfalls on the road of Pozo de la Salud and Sabinosa,, on the road to La Cumbre, in northern slopes of the area of Guinea, and on the slopes of the tunnel Roquille and Beaches area.

As reported by the National Geographic Institute (IGN) to the direction of Civil Protection Plan for Volcanic Risk Islands (Pevolca).

Also, IGN has confirmed that during the day of November 11, 43 earthquakes were located, four of which were felt by the population.

The main event recorded yesterday at 00:20 hours, and the largest that has occurred throughout the process-volcanic earthquake had a magnitude 4.6 on the Richter scale and an intensity IV-V (EMS). This event was located at the NW of the town of Frontera, two kilometers from the coast and 21 kilometers deep. The rest of the events recorded were located in the Gulf area (municipality of Frontera), aligned NNW / SSE from the sea to the center of the island forming two distinct groups, the first between 15-17 km and the second between the 20-24 km. In total, since the day July 17, 2011 11 493 events have been found.

Felt earthquakes were as follows: 00:20 pm, 21 km depth, intensity IV-V, magnitude 4.6; 00:32 hours, 18 kilometers deep, magnitude 2.8, 2:42 hours, depth 20 km, magnitude 3.4, 05: 30 hours, 24 km depth, magnitude 3.1.

[randles]

Thank You Dear Ulli Have a lovely day

Posted by ulli (here)
I come here once every day. Thank you Randles and Amzer Zo, and all who help to compile this information.
I keep myself in awareness to place a lid on the area
that allows pressure to escape without a massive build up that can blow with deadly consequences.
Randles, you are amazing.