With the El Hierrro activity still very much ongoing I thought that a general volcano thread could be stickied or kept alive to post updates as a few other events have also caught my attention today. Would it be possible to sticky this thread? On a different location away from the Canaries, and possibly not yet of significance there has been an earthquake swarm in the Katla area of Iceland this evening. Perhaps something to watch. Further afield there has also been another eruption in Chile at the Hudson volcano in the past 24hrs. It is not a volcano I have come across before but I think it may be one of the more active ones in the region. I understand if there is not enough interest to warrant a dedicated sticky thread but I thought it may be preferable to me starting random threads every time a volcano burps!

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Good idea

 

In terms of current activity, another volcano I doubt anyone has heard of before deserves mention:

Scientists investigate riddle of rapidly expanding volcano Uturunco

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Thanks for that Andy. I read that elsewhere earlier today and I had completely lost the link and wanted to read it again. It certainly sounds very interesting - I guess if that erupted the way it could it would dominate the news somewhat!

It was the statistic that it had been filling with magma at a rate of one cubic metre a second for the last few years that caught my attention. It is more of a super volcano than a volcano and I guess it could keep inflating for another 200000 years before anything happens (or a couple of days lol)

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With the El Hierrro activity still very much ongoing I thought that a general volcano thread could be stickied or kept alive to post updates as a few other events have also caught my attention today. Would it be possible to sticky this thread? On a different location away from the Canaries, and possibly not yet of significance there has been an earthquake swarm in the Katla area of Iceland this evening. Perhaps something to watch. Further afield there has also been another eruption in Chile at the Hudson volcano in the past 24hrs. It is not a volcano I have come across before but I think it may be one of the more active ones in the region. I understand if there is not enough interest to warrant a dedicated sticky thread but I thought it may be preferable to me starting random threads every time a volcano burps!

Good idea Doc ..........and done!

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Thanks John :)

Here's a little more info on that Chilean eruption I mentioned above

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/10/27/chilean-authorities-are-raising-hudson-volcano-cerro-hudson-to-red-alert-after-minor-eruption/ 

For anyone who is interested in this area generally I find the following two blogs very informative and interesting...

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/eruptions 

http://www.jonfr.com/volcano/ 

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Here's another link to seismic activity for Iceland.

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/

When I was there last month I kept asking the locals if they expected further activity and they all seemed nonplussed.If Katla does let go I'd be very tempted to go back if the airspace is open.

Interesting footage of the Chilean volcano.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15493442

El Hierro is looking very active today. I wonder if something is in the offing soon?

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El Hierro is looking very active today. I wonder if something is in the offing soon?

Hopefully not - it'd spell disaster for the US East Coast.

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El Hierro is looking very active today. I wonder if something is in the offing soon?

Hopefully not - it'd spell disaster for the US East Coast.

Highly unlikely, even with a massive eruption. La Palma is the area which could possibly cause a large landslide and tsunami, not El Hierro, although El Hierro did many thousands of years ago.

For the last couple of weeks there has been an ongoing small subterranean/below sea eruption to the SW of the island, however this new increasing activity is in the El Golfo region to the N/NW of the island. Even a moderate eruption there is unlikely to have massive consequences, except to the locals. It is pretty interesting though as it has been a long time since there had been any volcanic activity near that island.

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El Hierro is looking very active today. I wonder if something is in the offing soon?

Hopefully not - it'd spell disaster for the US East Coast.

Highly unlikely, even with a massive eruption. La Palma is the area which could possibly cause a large landslide and tsunami, not El Hierro, although El Hierro did many thousands of years ago. For the last couple of weeks there has been an ongoing small subterranean/below sea eruption to the SW of the island, however this new increasing activity is in the El Golfo region to the N/NW of the island. Even a moderate eruption there is unlikely to have massive consequences, except to the locals. It is pretty interesting though as it has been a long time since there had been any volcanic activity near that island.

That's good to hear. Certainly is interesting, I'll be keeping a close eye on El Hierro.

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The latest today on El Hierro is a continuing increase in seismic activity, with a recent 4.4 magnitude quake (about half an hour ago) and numerous large increases in tremors which are apparently associated with explosions rather than quakes.

The army are heading to the island to help co-ordinate evacuation centres for some of the locals, should it come to that. In another development on the island the submarine eruption to the south of the island has yielded a type of rock more usually associated with an explosive type eruption. It may not happen like that but it is a realist risk. I for one would not plan a trip to El Hierro in the coming days or weeks (not that I had been planning to!)

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El Hierro Volcano (Canary Islands) : Red alert – an impressive new stain forms in front of the coast

Thing's appear to be hotting up, see below link.

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/

 

(Been updated since)......New submarine vent to open in the El Golfo bay ? + today’s Jacuzzi images

Update 05/11 – 16:51 UTC :
Presidencia del Gobierno de Canarias has published 2 new images taken with the helicopter who was seen by Joke this morning. They are still showing a strong emitting vent in the Las Calmas sea. If the eruption in this vent is magmatic, than the depth must have been seriously decreased since the eruption began. It is hard however to know this,  as the authorities are NOT disclosing the geographic positions of the vents.

Update 05/11 – 16:35 UTC :
IGN announced that they expect a new vent to open or already opened in the El Golfo bay, but at a far bigger depth than at the La Restinga coast. The main  eruptive vent is still located to the south in the Las Calmas sea. (ER : let’s hope that the poor images of the NASA satellites will help us out in detecting an eventual coloring of the water).
IGN also said that last night 4.4 magnitude earthquake was perceived much stronger by the population because of the  close distance to the beach. The earlier big quake was weakened by the water masses.

 

Those photos tell the story nicely and images from later yesterday suggest that the eruption is now possibly entering a Surtseyan phase. Surely it will reach the British press if it does? I can imagine - Easyjet will have flights going to the new Canary Island before you know it. 😉

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Those photos tell the story nicely and images from later yesterday suggest that the eruption is now possibly entering a Surtseyan phase. Surely it will reach the British press if it does? I can imagine - Easyjet will have flights going to the new Canary Island before you know it. ;)

 

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Plenty been going on down at El Hierro since my last post. Looks like the Presidento does not want a webcam because it would hurt tourism as it would give the feeling of insecurity and danger.

Reading through the updates, it's interesting to read that whilst observing during the night 'There are tiny red lights on the water … probably when the underwater explosions are strongest. I counted them at least six times in almost two hours. During daylight we would probably have see vapors with ejections of ash and pyroclasts that accompany these little redness …'

Amazing to think that the redness of the underwater activity is visible through probably 10's or maybe hundreds of metres of sea water. Night time aerial footage over the vicinity would be interesting I reckon....anyway, here's the link.

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/ 

Yes, it seems quite possible that the eruption to the south of the island will break the water's surface at some point. Activity continues steadily both in terms of siesmicity and tremor.

On a different note, there was a 3.5 magnitude quake at a depth of 100m below Katla earlier today.

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Plenty been going on down at El Hierro since my last post. Looks like the Presidento does not want a webcam because it would hurt tourism as it would give the feeling of insecurity and danger.

Reading through the updates, it's interesting to read that whilst observing during the night 'There are tiny red lights on the water … probably when the underwater explosions are strongest. I counted them at least six times in almost two hours. During daylight we would probably have see vapors with ejections of ash and pyroclasts that accompany these little redness …'

Amazing to think that the redness of the underwater activity is visible through probably 10's or maybe hundreds of metres of sea water. Night time aerial footage over the vicinity would be interesting I reckon....anyway, here's the link.

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/

Amazing pic contained in that report, I'll will be keeping on monitoring this thread as this whole episode seems fascinating.

Thanks 

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http://www.canarias7.es/fotos/p3/8794.jpg 

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http://www.canarias7.es/fotos/p3/8794.jpg 

 

Wow, scary. Amazing if some new land mass appears.

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