El Hierro

[woe10]

Personally, I can´t wait for PAGE 4. Is something going to happen then Fifi. Maybe El Hierro will erupt like a Pimple on an Angels opening at the lower end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste is eliminated from the body:)

[jand]

Geology the geological epic of El Hierro started about 100 million years, when the bottom of the ocean began to abombar due to the unstoppable thrust of the mantle." Finally, the bark eventually break in a very characteristic way, cracking three-pointed star-shaped.

By cracks began flowing magma who, by successive eruptions and stacks, was lifting the island building until it finally emerged from the ocean forming an impressive triangular pyramid surmounted by a volcano of over 2000 meters in height.

The initial cracks became conduits for emission of lava which gave way to three dorsal ridges on which numerous volcanic cones are aligned. On the other hand, to cool the magma into these ducts it solidified in the form of gigantic vertical basaltic screens, forming characteristic herreña geological architecture so typical levees.

The great cataclysm but the island continued to grow due to the volcanic activity concentrated mainly in the meeting point of three ridges, up to a critical situation of dangerous instability. The truth is that only 50,000 years ago, the small island of El Hierro occurred in one of the natural phenomena more violent and devastating that has news: a shift of gigantic proportions.

In a few seconds, probably acting trigger some seismic tremor, broke a large piece of the island and was precipitated by the marine slope for happy-go-lucky then by seabed. As the wound of a colossal blow, appears the impressive Amphitheatre of the Valley of the Gulf.
It is difficult to imagine a detachment of 300 km3, a volume corresponding to 100 times the volcano ST.Helens.

It is believed that tsunami wave, produced by the sliding of the Gulf had overcome with more than 100 metres in height and is more than likely that its effects reach feel American coasts.

[fifi]

quote:Originally posted by woe10


Personally, I can´t wait for PAGE 4. Is something going to happen then Fifi. Maybe El Hierro will erupt like a Pimple on an Angels opening at the lower end of the alimentary canal through which solid waste is eliminated from the body:)

....an even bigger pimple.[][]

[fifi]

Sorry jand I was distracted there. Hope the webcam is back in action tomorrow and that we will be able to have a clear view.[]

[jand]

jonfr.com/volcano

Lurking says:


 November 9, 2011 at 02:32


Here and over on eruptions, reposts of twitter comments have indicated odors.

First... if you can smell it, it's not CO2 (carbon dioxide) you are smelling. CO2 is odorless. The danger from CO2 is if you wind up in a confined space with it and it prevents you from getting oxygen. It's not poisonous, and exposures of a few thousand parts per million won't hurt you ... as long as you can get oxygen.

CO (carbon monoxide) is also odorless, but it's toxic. CO binds with the hemoglobin in your blood and inhibits the bloods ability to bind and carry oxygen. Carbon monoxide poisoning is cumulative since it takes a while for your body to get rid of it. This means that you can be exposed to minor amounts of it throughout the day and eventually get enough in your system to where you develop severe headaches. Working in poorly ventilated areas around motors or engines (or bar-q-que grills) are the leading causes of CO poisoning. (I've had this, it ain't fun)

H2S, Hydrogen Sulfide, is the smell of rotten eggs. It's also toxic. From the Material Safety Data Sheet for H2S -> "Sense of smell becomes rapidly fatigued and can not be relied upon to warn of the continuous presence of H2S". The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists places the exposure limit at 10ppm over an 8 hour period.

SO2, Sulfur Dioxide, has a smell similar to burnt matches. Also toxic, it forms sulfuric acid upon contact with mucous membranes. DFG-MAK places exposure limits at 2ppm (TWA Time-Weighted Average)

Other gases that can be encountered with volcanoes – Hydrogen Fluoride (HF) – Hydrogen Chloride (HCl). Both are acrid and dangerous. An alternate source of HCl are the "steam plumes" from magma interacting with seawater. HCl forms hydrochloric acid upon contact with mucous membranes.

UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES FOLLOW THE EXPOSURE GUIDELINES AS SET FORTH BY YOUR COGNIZANT AUTHORITIES.

Now a bit about understanding the info that comes from the sensors.

One cubic meter of air has a mass of 1293 grams (1.28 kg)

By weight, one ppm (part per million) would be 0.00129 grams, or 1.29 mg (1290 µg)

The last time I looked, the SO2 sensor at Restinga was at 5.02 µg/m³, or 0.0039 ppm.

I can not give you the specifications that Spain uses in their gas exposure limits. But keep in mind that no one there wants to intentionally hurt anyone. But before you start believing a rumor, check the data and see if it make sense. If it doesn't, then it's probably bullpoo.

The USGS has some nice data on volcanic gases here: http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/index.php


Reply



Xana says:

 November 9, 2011 at 03:19


Here's a pdf containing the limits of all chemical substances and limits of exposure for professionals in Spain: http://www.insht.es/InshtWeb/Contenidos/Documentacion/TextosOnline/Valores_Limite/limites2011/Limites2011web.pdf
 CO =
 VLA-ED 25ppm – 29 mg/m3
 VLA-EC : n/a
 dióxido de azufre:
 VLA-ED 2ppm 5,3 mg/m3
 VLA-EC 5ppm 13mg/m3
–Exposición diaria (ED)
 –Exposición de corta duración (EC).

[jand]

The 3.7 was last night at 2258.

Another earthquake of 3.7 this time, seems that the thing is not over and today the day already takes 3 moderate earthquakes, and much more seismicity... this night paints hectic, especially between 4 and 6 in the morning if it continues with an earthquake of these every 6 h... We'll see what happens....(Henry)
1111408 08/11/2011 22: 58: 28 27.7716 - 18.0470 21 3.7 4 NW FRONTIER.IHI
If you have felt, remember to fill the questionnaire of the IGN, is very important.
http://www.01.ign.es/IGN/layoutIn/geofisicaCuesmaCuesmaTerremotos.do

[jand]

Lurking says:

 November 9, 2011 at 07:14


*sigh...

As normal, I go look and get distracted.

The lower quakes actually have an alignment... as to the upper batch.

Previously I've stated that the upper group are near the outer limits of the 64% boundary of the "dike emplacement" set from before September. That still holds true. There is an intervening gap that on IGN diagrams has been shown as the lower boundary of the El Hierro mass. In this representation, that gap could be... Moho. I don't know the characteristics of Moho to be able to say that it's aseismic like this gap is. I do know that there is a gap, we can all see it in the plots.

The quakes in the deep set and the quakes in the shallower set do not have a direction of "movement" through time, it's just a shot-gun blast of quakes all seemingly at random in those two areas.

But there is an alignment. I've noticed the shape before, but just haven't looked close enough to measure anything about it. I figured out how to do it.

First of all, I selected only November quakes. I then changed the lat and lon increments into what the km distance is at this latitude, then I set everything for 1:1:1. Spinning the plot so that the alignments showed up, I did a screen cap and took it over into a graphic program that has an angular measurement function.

Measuring each set (upper and lower) I noticed that they both have odd-ball groupings within them that sort of parallel each other (in that group).

The wild part is that both sets seem to have similar dip angles. They don't lean towards the same azimuth, they are off by a couple of degrees. The direction of the lean is to the southwest.

Dip angles in both sets is about 37 and 38 degrees.

Upper set:

http://i44.tinypic.com/dhag5k.png

Lower set:

http://i41.tinypic.com/29dhhzl.png

The view angle is along the major alignment looking to the North-North East.

Whats it mean? Beats the flying @#$ out of me.

Reply

[jand]

looks like something is happening ?

http://www.01.ign.es/ign/head/volcaSenalesAnterioresDia.do?nombreFichero=CHIE_2011-11-09&ver=s&estacion=CHIE&Anio=2011&Mes=11&Dia=09&tipo=1

[jand]

Avcan

Buenos días, sigo teniendo problemas con la web cam y no parece que del lado institucional haya interés en instalar una. Les adjunto la última actualización que he encontrado en http://earthquake-report.c#8203;om/2011/09/25/el-hierro-ca#8203;nary-islands-spain-volcani#8203;c-risk-alert-increased-to-#8203;yellow/: Update 09/11 – 07:50 UTC :
 Raymond Matabosch reports :
 5:59: The activity is very strong in the jacuzzi and the successive explosions still show plumes of steam, ash and pyroclasts which rise in between 15 and 30 meters above the water surface. They are currently occurring 1 to 2 times per hour.
 The top of the vent seems to rise gradually to the surface but it is still too deep (probably between 30 and 50 meters) for the bubbles to rise higher. With each explosion, in addition to the IGN listed earthquakes, the ground vibrates and the smell of sulfur near La Restinga and Puerto Naos are sometimes suffocating.
 7:36: I have the impression that IGN recalibrates the scale too often ... to minimize the harmonic tremor?
 What do they wants us to understand? That the activity is slowing down?
 (ER: The words of Raymond, who is really focused on the Las Calmas activity, are sometimes a little overheated . This is in part due his proximity to the action. Everybody who ever has visited a volcano in an increasing pre-eruptive phase knows what we are talking about).

[jand]

Video from the helicopter yesterday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue1YpyKqQT8

[SurfJames]

Wow - great videa jand.

It looks like we are about to enter the next phase shortly with huge plumes of steam, ash and rock getting blasted into the sky.

If you compare this video with one from 3 days ago, you get an indication just how much more reactive and bigger this thing has become.

Once the cone has settled at a shallower depth, there is gonna' be fireworks!

Keep them posted and thanks again for the effort.

[fifi]

No activity for a while from the eruption and a suggestion that the vent may have closed. The Ramon Margalef will go and survey the area.

Tweets

Cabildo de El Hierro
PrensaElHierro Cabildo de El Hierro

Cabildo de El Hierro and Telefonica already being installed in La Restinga 2 webcam for live tracking of eruptive phenomena.

Telefónica has had to enable special server to handle the potential demand for these images. Will be operational shortly.
18 minutes ago

With one of the cameras can see an overview of La Restinga and the Sea of calms and the other directly focus point of emission.

Cabildo de El Hierro and Telefonica already being installed in La Restinga 2 webcam for live tracking of eruptive phenomena.

[SurfJames]

Scientists suggest vent may have closed.

Logic also suggests three possible outcomes:

The volcanic episode is over

or

The vent will blow it's top when pressure is high enough

or

magma will find a new fissure



I guess it all depends if the tremors die down or not.

[fifi]

The other webcam is working again but there isnt much to see really and the image is not very clear.http://www.ustream.tv/channel/el-hierro1

[jand]

Update 09/11 – 14:01 UTC :
- Joke has just reported that she had spoken to the technicians and the Cabildo (authorities).  The technicians told her that the installation of the webcam was almost finished and that only the software had to be configured. The least that we can say is that this news is hopeful !
 - Pevolca did meet at noon and as could be expected nothing new has been decided

Update 09/11 – 13:04 UTC :
The Roman Margaleff has been throwing a buoy near the eruption vent yesterday. The ship is now circling the area. What the ship is doing know can be called a calculated risk. We have to admit that the ship is doing great work in continuous sampling of the emitted gases and the water (he has been observed many times at the edge of the stain the last couple of days). As Patrick Allard was telling in this article before, the composition of the gases is predominant in calculating the risk for the population.
 - El Pinar webcam is live again, but it is hard to see any detail in the sea due to the backlight

Update 09/11 – 12:41 UTC :
Picked up from the comments made below (Name and address known @ ER)
 Cabildo de El Hierro and Telefonica are installing 2 webcams in La Restinga to enable people to follow LIVE the eruption events.
 Cabildo de El Hierro y Telefónica ya están instalando 2 webcam en La Restinga para el seguimiento en directo del fenómeno eruptivo Twitter
 If this message is confirmed, this is really good news, as Telefonica is the main telecommunications company in Spain and is maybe the only instance who is able to guarantee huge amounts of traffic.

Very Important Update 09/11 – 12:22 UTC :
 - Scientists in La Restinga and Guardia Civil who is currently flying over the earlier jacuzzi location  have reported that the vent has probably closed completely. The activity has completely stopped at the moment. The Roman Margaleff Oceanographic ship is now close to the eruption vent is is probably taking gas samples and water samples.
 We expect to publish images soon.
 The closure of erupting vents is a normal phase in this kind of activity. This does not mean that the volcano activity is completely over. If the volcano continues in the same pattern, the seismic activity may getting stronger again as the magma trying to find his way to the surface has been blocked.

Update 09/11 – 11:30 UTC :
 - There is a slowdown of the activity. A lot of pumice, but the activity active seaspots have subsided almost completely. Joke is now looking atthe Las Calmas sea at the Montaña Naos (the cliff 150 meter above the Las Calmas sea).
 - The world is blind again ! The El Pinar webcam (see picture below) turned black.
 - The owner of the La Restinga webcam is still working on a solution involving the authorities and Telefonica. Why do we have a bad feeling about this ...

Data Update 09/11 – 11:20 UTC :
 - 18 M+1.5 earthquakes occurred since midnight today
 - strongest earthquake had a magnitude of 3.0 and occurred at 04:15 NW of Frontera.
 - seismic activity is almost unchanged for many days now, the depths are still within the 17 to 23 km range and almost all epicenters are in the El Golfo bay.

Update 09/11 – 10:41 UTC :
 We had to cut a part of this page and called it Part 9 (04/11-06/11). The page was simply getting too long. We have maintained a few important elements in the lower part of this article.

Update 09/11 – 09:00 UTC :
 Patrick Allard comment on the IGN rescaling issue of the harmonic  tremor scale :
 I am convinced that IGN seismologists  rightly adjust the display of harmonic tremor simply to avoid full-scale  saturation and be able to watch at ongoing short-term amplitude  oscillations.
 (more comments of Patrick Allard, see below)

[jand]

canarias7.es

La Sexta Noticias mentioned this earlier today on their tv programme (there is NO sixth victim!): One technician of IGN has been taken to hospital yesterday with signs of (CO/2?) gas poisoning, blue tongue etc. He has recovered, the news says now. But the roads to the old Port of Naos and Calas de Tacorón have been closed.

Indeed a worrisome sign – yet Bob seems quiet at the moment, so we need to wait for new measurements. It would also be good to have more permanent stations that take samples of the air than just the one mobile unit that seems stationed in La Restinga on the quay...

[fifi]

Tweets after the meeting.

PresiCan GobCan Presidency
Pavilion closes successfully Canary Islands promotion at the World Travel Market in London


PrensaElHierro Cabildo de El Hierro
Environmental quality meters in La Restinga continue delivering results ahead of the eligible population.

The Margalef are going to Tenerife to pick up technical staff and will begin tomorrow to examining the  eruption area.

expected maximum magnitude of earthquakes is still maintained at 4.5 and 4.6 on the Richter scale, according to @ IGNSpain

The bubbling in the broadcast area of Puerto Naos is due to gas accumulation, according to CSIC.


The seismicity and deformation continue  same patterns of previous days, according to IGN.

Still does not appear associated tremor signal to the north of the island.

According to IGN, the tremor remained stable, except pulses after 22:00 pm yesterday.

 Pevolca prohibits access to the beaches of Puerto Naos Tacorón because of  accumulation of gases.

Civil protection measures in  the North because it continues to remain risk associated with landslides.

Pevolca maintains protective measures in La Restinga

                    ..............

Papers.. http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=237479 Nothing new in this apart from suggesting that the volcano is now nearer the surface.
                        ...........

Synopsis of what the Director general of Security has to say in this article.http://www.elpais.com/articulo/sociedad/proceso/puede/durar/meses/elpepusoc/20111108elpepusoc_16/Tes

Of course, everything is guesswork. Because the situation may become worse. "The worst scenario would be a rash on earth," says Santana. "The odds are very very small, and scientists say there would be a three-day window to alert the population, but the damage to the cultural and artistic heritage, the environment, the risk of fire and property of people would more severe than if the rash is at sea, which may occur, for example in the north, without noticing. In any case the work of all of us involved in this process is to take all measures and cover all scenarios ".

Santana has also assumed the public information policy in the crisis. For example, tight control of what scientists say, they are prohibited from giving interviews. The idea is "to discuss the scientific committee and take out consensual positions. Communication is essential for people who want certainty, and our main concern is that they are fully informed, but by the scientific committee," because if there are other voices "may imply confusion and sensationalism, and has tried the opposite. What they say others are assumptions.'re talking about those who have to talk."

An example of what has been achieved with this policy is the awareness among the population of the island about volcanology, says Santana. "It's amazing what they have learned from this phenomenon." Many, young and old, have been accustomed, as the director general to check the website of the National Geographic Institute to see earthquakes. "They control a fisular leguaje as rash, types of casts, tremor, volcano," he says. "That indicates concern, but also how it has improved access to knowledge through ICT, information technology and knowledge."

And part of this policy is not to give false hope. "The process can take months. So yes, we need luck."

[fifi]

A wonderful report on Fuerteventuras Volcanos if anyone is interested in learning about them.[]http://www.atan.org/geologia/articulos/Fuerteventura.pdf

[jand]

www.earthquake-report.com

08.11.2011 – James Daniell, a staff contributor to Earthquake-Report.com, structural engineer, CATDAT founder and specialized in damage calculation for earthquakes and volcano eruptions, has looked into various details of what an eventual eruption could generate.

08.11.2011 – James Daniell, a staff contributor to Earthquake-Report.com, structural engineer, CATDAT founder and specialized in damage calculation for earthquakes and volcano eruptions, has looked into various details of what an eventual eruption could generate.

A quick exposure-risk picture of what could be affected should a full blown eruption occur

El Hierro Island has 10,960 inhabitants producing a GDP per capita of around 8000 euros, the equivalent of around 88 million Euros.

The economy is sustained via livestock (goats, sheep and cattle – milk for cheese), agriculture (fruits and wine), fishing (tuna etc.) and tourism (not as great as the rest of the Canary Islands – they do mostly rural/adventure tourism and have around 2000 beds.

La Restinga is the main port for fishing, which is hardly affected by the eruption. Water temperatures in the vicinity of the volcano have been measured at 35.3 degrees instead of the usual 24 degrees.

Livestock (as seen in previous eruptions, especially in Iceland) can be killed if fluoride poisoning occurs of water sources.

The rest of the Canary Islands relies greatly on tourism (32% of the GDP) and could be affected significantly if El Hierro is to produce an aerial eruption. Tourism accounts for around 14 billion Euros of the 43.248 billion Euro GDP.

Over 9 million tourists visit the Canary Islands each year, with around 16.9 million people moving through the 8 airports each year (around 46300 people a day). Should all the airports be out for a week at anytime, the predicted loss in GDP would be around 400 million Euros in tourism losses.

As much of the other GDP is centralized on the islands, limited losses would occur in other sectors, apart from directly affected losses in the livestock, fishing and agriculture sector.

What is also interesting is that a €54 million project is currently being undertaken on El Hierro to create a 11MW wind farm and two hydroelectric projects using an extinct volcano to be the first island around the world to have complete energy self-sufficiency. Water release from the extinct volcano (when pumped up 700m), will create 11.3 MW. This system is expected to save €4 million.

It is unknown how much this would be affected.

Tsunami risk we will not mention at this point, however there is always the chance of underwater landslides, on-shore landslides through seismic activity.

Wind for El Hierro can be seen in the last 18 hours here.

It can be seen that at the moment, winds are favourable with winds blowing from the north to the south. This means that should there be an aerial eruption, the other islands in the Canaries would not be significantly affected by the resulting ash cloud.

In fact, the general wind direction is a NNE-northerly, meaning that it is unlikely that for the month of November there could be a major ash impact on the rest of the islands. We thank windfinder.com  and recommend their service.

[jand]

Fifi

There are some interesting maps shown for the above post please would you add them.

Many thanks.

[jand]

http://www.ilovesantacruz.es/newweb/a/2011/11/

360 degree view of La Restinga

[jand]

Fifi

Thank you for your posting the report on the volcanoes on Fuerte.

Some of what is written is definately food for thought !!!

[fifi]

Welcome.[] Webcam back online, seems to be a very bad storm or something going on at the moment.http://www.ustream.tv/channel/el-hierro1

Looks like it is a storm from the Satellite photos.http://www.sat24.com/gzoom.aspx?ir=false®ion=ce&x=326&y=342

http://www.sat24.com/zoomloop.aspx?ir=true®ion=af&lat=29&lon=-16

[fifi]

quote:Originally posted by jand

Fifi

There are some interesting maps shown for the above post please would you add them.

Many thanks.

Wind for El Hierro can be seen in the last 18 hours here.

It can be seen that at the moment, winds are favourable with winds blowing from the north to the south. This means that should there be an aerial eruption, the other islands in the Canaries would not be significantly affected by the resulting ash cloud.

[fifi]

Canarias7 reports on a disagreement in between the CSIC scientists and the IGN scientists. CSIC is the local Canary Islands scientific institute and IGN is the National Spanish Geographical Institute.  The relations were initially very cordial, but started to deteriorate when both parties were arguing about the risk for the El Golfo and the La Restinga area. According to  Canarias7 CSIC does not believe in the risk of an eruption near La Restinga anymore and want to focus the research in the El Golfo area http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=237513

35 earthquakes so far today in El Hierro http://www.avcan.org/?m=Animacion

           ......................



Volcanologists INSTITUTE OF CANARIES

 9 November. Semaphore = RED volcanic alert. Make yourself available to the authorities (The light volcanic alert level reflects the top of the same regardless of the number of municipalities affected)

[jand]

Fifi

Does this mean the whole island is on red alert now.?

[fifi]

The alert issued is for gasses jand. Ive been trying to figure out if it applies to all areas but am still not sure.

[jand]

Harmonic tremors seem to be picking up again.

http://www.01.ign.es/ign/head/volcaSenalesAnterioresDia.do?nombreFichero=CHIE_2011-11-09&estacion=CHIE&Anio=2011&Mes=11&Dia=09

[jand]

jonfr.com/volcano
Brian Smith says:

 November 9, 2011 at 20:18


The low frequency harmonic tremor that appears on all but two of the island seismographs has reappeared and is increasing in amplitude quite rapidly. It is now at 0.13Hz but it has a complex beat pattern suggesting that it is composed of two closely spaced signals with a frequency difference of only 0.014Hz. With such widespread reception is must be coming from very deep down. If it represents the rate of flow of the main magma supply then things are hotting up.

Reply

[jand]

@ PrensaElHierro: The Margalef part to Tenerife to collect technical staff responsible for starting tomorrow to batrimetrías in the area of eruption.
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