Science

Renewed Activity at El Hierro in the Canary Islands

Looks like 2012 is trying to start out busy – we got an impressive eruption of Etna the other day and now it seems that El Hierro is showing renewed vigor (see below). New video from INVOLCAN and images from the webcams show that the sea surface is steaming (see below) and reports from people […]
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Staff Sgt. Christopher Tracy inserts a bank card into an ATM Oct. 26, 2010, at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. Photo: U.S. Air Force

Looks like 2012 is trying to start out busy - we got an impressive eruption of Etna the other day and now it seems that El Hierro is showing renewed vigor (see below). New video from INVOLCAN and images from the webcams show that the sea surface is steaming (see below) and reports from people at El Hierro say that new pyroclastic chunks (the "coconuts") have been spotted as well. Diario El Hierro is reporting an increase in seismic tremor at the volcano over the last 24 hours. Not much is showing on the El Hierro webcams, but its never a bad idea to keep an eye on them. You never know if the activity might continue long enough to produce a subaerial eruption (such as the activity at Jebel Zubair in the Red Sea), but right now, we're still likely a long way from that.

A webcam capture of the steaming sea surface south of El Hierro seen on January 6, 2012. Image courtesy of @teideano.

{Special thanks to @teideano for keeping us up to date on the activity from El Hierro.}