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El Hierro - Canary Islands - Possible eruption alert


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Just throwing some info about El Hierro in here instead of starting a new thread....

Doomers are trying to spin it into the La Palma tsunami scenario. Still interesting to follow as it could be on the verge of some kind of eruption in the short term.

http://www.washingto...2TXL_story.html

The regional government of the Spanish Canary Island of El Hierro has issued a volcanic eruption alert following almost 10,000 small tremors recorded in the past three months. The government posted a yellow alert — second level in a scale of four — Sunday and closed some hillside roads and a tunnel to avoid possible injury by falling rocks.

Activity has picked up somewhat. Latest update from one of the news sources down that way -

http://www.canarias7.es

Cuatro barcos han alertado a las autoridades marítimas de la existencia de actividad volcánica cuatro millas al sur de La Restinga (El Hierro) y a unos 500 metros de profundidad.

Four ships have alerted maritime authorities of the existence of volcanic activity four miles south of La Restinga (El Hierro) and about 500 meters deep.

*edit*

Link for El Hierro data -

http://www.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/HIERRO.html

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Just throwing some info about El Hierro in here instead of starting a new thread....

Doomers are trying to spin it into the La Palma tsunami scenario. Still interesting to follow as it could be on the verge of some kind of eruption in the short term.

As idiotic as that is, the La Palma tsunami scenario ITSELF is crap. It's been rejected by the tsunami community as a whole (poor modeling, etc.) th The problem is dopey science documentaries on cable just can't get enough of animations 100 foot wave crashing on the Statue of Liberty, so Simon Day gets to continuously excitedly describe the scenario with no rebuttal.

TSUNAMI SOCIETY COMMITTEE ON MEGA TSUNAMI HAZARDS

January 15, 2003

The mission of the Tsunami Society includes "the dissemination of knowledge about tsunamis to scientists, officials, and the public". We have established a committee of private, university, and government scientists to accomplish part of this goal by correcting misleading or invalid information released to public about this hazard. We can supply both valid, correct and important information and advice to the public, and the names of reputable scientists active in the field of tsunami, who can provide such information.

Most recently, the Discovery Channel has replayed a program alleging potential destruction of coastal areas of the Atlantic by tsunami waves which might be generated in the near future by a volcanic collapse in the Canary Islands. Other reports have involved a smaller but similar catastrophe from Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawai`i. They like to call these occurences "mega tsunamis". We would like to halt the scaremongering from these unfounded reports. We wish to provide the media with factual information so that the public can be properly informed about actual hazards of tsunamis and their mitigation.

Here are a set of facts, agreed on by committee members, about the claims in these reports:

- While the active volcano of Cumbre Vieja on Las Palma is expected to erupt again, it will not send a large part of the island into the ocean, though small landslides may occur. The Discovery program does not bring out in the interviews that such volcanic collapses are extremely rare events, separated in geologic time by thousands or even millions of years.

- No such event - a mega tsunami - has occurred in either the Atlantic or Pacific oceans in recorded history. NONE.

- The colossal collapses of Krakatau or Santorin (the two most similar known happenings) generated catastrophic waves in the immediate area but hazardous waves did not propagate to distant shores. Carefully performed numerical and experimental model experiments on such events and of the postulated Las Palma event verify that the relatively short waves from these small, though intense, occurrences do not travel as do tsunami waves from a major earthquake.

- The U.S. volcano observatory, situated on Kilauea, near the current eruption, states that there is no likelihood of that part of the island breaking off into the ocean.

- These considerations have been published in journals and discussed at conferences sponsored by the Tsunami Society.

Some papers on this subject include:

"Evaluation of the threat of Mega Tsunami Generation From ....Volcanoes on La Palma ... and Hawaii", George Pararas-Carayannis, in Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol 20, No.5, pages 251-277, 2002.

"Modeling the La Palma Landslide Tsunami", Charles L. Mader, in Science of Tsunami Hazards, Vol. 19, No. 3, pages 160-180, 2001.

"Volcano Growth and the Evolution of the Island of Hawaii", J.G. Moore and D.A.Clague, in the Geologic Society of America Bulletin, 104, 1992.

Committee members for this report include:

Mr. George Curtis, Hilo, HI (Committee Chairman) 808-963-6670

Dr. Tad Murty, Ottawa, Canada, 613-731-8900

Dr. Laura Kong, Honolulu, HI, 808-532-6422

Dr. George Pararas-Carayannis, Honolulu, HI, 808-943-1150

Dr. Charles L. Mader, Los Alamos, NM, 808-396-9855

and all can comment on this or other tsunami matters.

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Conflicting reports -

http://noticiacanaria.visibli.com/share/HgTv1h

La Dirección del PEVOLCA afirma que no hay certeza de una erupción volcánica submarina en la Isla de El Hierro

El IGN ha constatado durante la pasada madrugada una pequeña liberación de fluidos y gases de tipo volcánico que no suponen riesgo para la población

The leadership of the PEVOLCA claims that there is no certainty of a submarine volcanic eruption on the island of El Hierro

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http://www.irishweat...erro/41346.html

Spain’s Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) confirmed on Tuesday that an underwater eruption has occurred five kilomtres off the southern coastline of El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Island. The eruption is Spain’s first since the eruption in 1971 of the Teneguía volcano on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands). The IGN says all three of its seismic stations on El Hierro in the Canary Islands have registered a volcanic tremor of low frequency in the south of the island at La Restinga, the southern-most village in the Canaries.

The present volcanic activity is understood to be occurring at a depth of 600 metres (just under one kilometre) below sea level, in the Las Calmas sea. Scientists from IGN, CSIC and the University of Cadiz have established their monitoring base at La Restinga. Efforts are underway to determine if the subsea volcanic vent is widening and if so, in which direction (away or toward El Hierro).

Still active though not felt by those on the island -

http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=232934

232934-1p.jpg

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From what I can tell they have started evacuations away from the coast. Possibility of evacuating the island...

El epicentro de los últimos seísmos se desplaza hacia el centro de El Hierro. El Instituto Geográfico Nacional espera seísmos de mayor intensidad -entre 4 y 5 grados- ante la presión de la lava en busca de un nuevo punto de salida.

The epicenter of the latest earthquakes moves toward the center of El Hierro. The National Geographic Institute expects earthquakes of greater intensity - between 4 and 5 degrees - under the pressure of the lava in search of a new point of departure.

*edit*

Evacuations are only for the areas around La Restinga. Nothing about the entire island.

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Something seems to have happened at 1430Z; two large broadband events, then the harmonic tremor was greatly reduced. No update on the earthquake list.

Yeah it has lit up some of the better sources that have been following this event. Tremors have slowly built back up. No updates from the island so far with any significant changes.

CHIE_2011-10-12.jpg

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http://www.canarias7.es/

El Gobierno canario confirma que hay dos manchas de color verde, con fuerte color a azufre, y abundantes peces muertos, en aguas de La Restinga. Confirmaría la existencia de una segunda erupción, como se preveía.

The Canarian Government confirms that there are two spots of green, with strong color of sulphur, and abundant fish killed in waters off La Restinga. It would confirm the existence of a second eruption, as expected.

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Would this type of an eruption cause a climatic shift or have a climatic impact?

I have searched for the VEI potential of this volcano and can't find it. There is a small amount of people "doomers" who think the island has the potential to cause a mega-tsunami directed at the north and south America. The theory is a volcanic eruption could cause something called a flank collapse into the ocean directing a mega tsunami toward the United states and other countries in north and south America,

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I have searched for the VEI potential of this volcano and can't find it. There is a small amount of people "doomers" who think the island has the potential to cause a mega-tsunami directed at the north and south America. The theory is a volcanic eruption could cause something called a flank collapse into the ocean directing a mega tsunami toward the United states and other countries in north and south America,

And those people have almost no support within the scientific community. it's not quite like theorizing that the world is flat, but it's close.

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And those people have almost no support within the scientific community. it's not quite like theorizing that the world is flat, but it's close.

And extending that to Hierro is even more silly.

1) Only a tiny fraction of Canary eruptions lead to flank collapse.

2) Since this is on the South side of Hierro, there's no way a collapse tsunami could propagate in the direction of the US.

3) Hierro has had numerous flank collapses but they've basically already happened fairly recently (the three bays are the result of flank collapses).. There isn't that much to collapse.

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265.5 feet, highest ground elevation in Manhattan. Glen Oaks in Queens is 258'.

So its a good thing the TV shows about a 90 meter tsunami hitting NYC are probably overblown hype.

I shouldn't be surprised that you would post something with zero relevance.

Try reading the thread or go back to your ot thread where I tried pointing out to you that the doomer scenario is for a totally different volcano.

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Unconfirmed reports that the 'eruption' has breached the surface with geyser like conditions. Tremor activity has been building as the day has progressed with bursts over the last few hours. Nothing from official authorities yet.

http://www.01.ign.es/ign/head/volcaSenalesAnterioresDia.do?nombreFichero=CHIE_2011-10-17&ver=s&estacion=CHIE&Anio=2011&Mes=10&Dia=17&tipo=1

CHIE_2011-10-17_18-19_sp.jpg

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