Ready To Blow? Homes Evacuated On Canary Island As Underwater Volcano Spews Molten Rock 60ft Into The Air
- Ships ordered away from port and planes banned from flying over El Hierro
- Sea of brown magma bubbling up just off the coast
Last updated at 4:18 PM on 7th November 2011
Homes have been evacuated and roads closed on the southern-most Canary Island following a government-issued warning about a possible volcanic eruption.
The southern tip of El Hierro was shaken by a 4.3-magnitude quake late on Saturday as an underwater volcano just off the coast started spewing matter some 60ft into the air.
The island, which has 500 volcanic cones, has experienced more than 10,000 tremors in the past four months.
Renewed fears of an eruption came as vast quantities of magma – the molten rock from just under the earth’s crust – began bubbling into the sea off the port of La Restinga.
Scroll down for video
Sea of magma: Brown and bubbling material from a new underwater volcano stains the sea off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands
Witnessess said that explosive plumes and jets could be seen on the ocean surface from the underwater volcano which began erupting last month. Some of the material is being ejected as high as 60ft into the air.
The regional government of the Spanish Canary Island issued a ‘yellow’ volcanic eruption alert – the second on a four-level scale.
La Restinga’s 600 residents were evacuated last week after the volcanic activity began.
Now new evacuations have been called for people living along the southern end of the island. Authorities have also shut down access to La Restinga.
Evacuation: Families leave La Restinga town for the second time in a month as activity from the underwater volcano off the coast increases. Authorities are planning to evacuate other stretches of the coast
Explosive: The underwater volcano spews molten rock into the air off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands
Ships have been ordered away from waters around the port and aircraft have been banned from flying over the island’s southern tip.
The regional government of the Canary Islands says scientists have detected airborne volcanic fragments called pyroclasts rising from the sea off La Restinga.
Danger: The dark brown magma off El Hierro, with the town of La Restinga visible on the coast. La Restinga has been evacuated and shipping banned from the area. Right, a closer image of the magma in the water
Threatening: A computer-generated image shows the underground volcano off the southern-most Canary Island, El Hierro
The government said it awaited scientific reports on the danger posed by pyroclasts, but a research vessel that was collecting samples there has been ordered to stop.
Fears of an eruption have been going since the end of July, when El Hierro experienced the first of what has become more than 10,000 tremors – collectively known as an earthquake ‘swarm’.
Residents were evacuated from some areas at the end of September when volcanic activity increased to more than 150 tremors in 24 hours. The army was put on standby for a mass evacuation.
Map showing the location of the volcano off the coast of El Hierro in the Canary Islands
Volcano expert Juan Carlos Carrecedo said at the time: ‘There is a ball of magma rising to the surface producing a series of ruptures which generate seismic activity.
‘We don’t know if that ball of magma will break through the crust and cause an eruption.’
But he warned an eruption was possible ‘in days, weeks or months’.
The last eruption on El Hierro was in 1793 and lasted for a month.
The last eruption in the Canary Islands as a whole took place on the island of La Palma in 1971.
Tectonic plates map with the Canary Islands circled. The last volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands took place on the island of La Palma in 1971
Eruption: A diagram showing where the epicentres of tremors have been. El Hierro was formed when three volcanoes erupted 100 million years ago
ISLANDS PERCHED ON THE SHIFTING AFRICAN PLATE
Under the Canary Islands lies an area of magma which is able to break through to the surface when the African Plate – on which the islands sit – shifts. It is to this that the islands owe their very existence.
Most of the islands are still volcanically active and there has been speculation that a smaller, previously undetected fault line also runs through the chain.
El Hierro – which means ‘iron’ in Spanish – was formed after three volcanic eruptions 100 million years ago and is topped by a volcano more than 6,000ft high.
Volcanic activity – mainly where three ridge lines converge – has caused El Hierro to expand continually. The last time it erupted was in 1793.
Some 50,000 years ago, massive landslides triggered by earthquakes caused a large part of the island to crack off and fall into the Atlantic Ocean, according to Irish Weather Online.
That created the El Golfo valley on the island and caused an 300ft-high tsunami that probably reached the American coast.
This feeds into the belief that volcanic activity on La Palma – the most tectonically active of the Canary Islands – could trigger a mega-tsunami.
The theory – which has never been confirmed – claims that a possible fault line through the island would cause a major landslide under certain circumstances.
That landslide would then spark a tsunami that would cause extensive damage all down the Atlantic Coast of the U.S., the Caribbean, Western Europe, West Africa and the east coast of South America.
Source Dailymail
Anyone can join.
Anyone can contribute.
Anyone can become informed about their world.
"United We Stand" Click Here To Create Your Personal Citizen Journalist Account Today, Be Sure To Invite Your Friends.
Please Help Support BeforeitsNews by trying our Natural Health Products below!
Order by Phone at 888-809-8385 or online at https://mitocopper.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomic.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Order by Phone at 866-388-7003 or online at https://www.herbanomics.com M - F 9am to 5pm EST
Humic & Fulvic Trace Minerals Complex - Nature's most important supplement! Vivid Dreams again!
HNEX HydroNano EXtracellular Water - Improve immune system health and reduce inflammation.
Ultimate Clinical Potency Curcumin - Natural pain relief, reduce inflammation and so much more.
MitoCopper - Bioavailable Copper destroys pathogens and gives you more energy. (See Blood Video)
Oxy Powder - Natural Colon Cleanser! Cleans out toxic buildup with oxygen!
Nascent Iodine - Promotes detoxification, mental focus and thyroid health.
Smart Meter Cover - Reduces Smart Meter radiation by 96%! (See Video).
| Online: | |
| Visits: | 1,605,887,150 |
| Stories: | 8,157,519 |
Whistler Blowers, Insiders
