Earthquake Swarm (11000+) El Hierro, Canary Islands

fizzycyst

up for anything wrote: »

And it will say, the tidal wave will reach as far as and just past South Kilkenny. All those in the city will be saved while the Sodom and Gormorrahs of Piltown, Mooncoin and Fiddown will rest with Atlantis beneath the ocean waves.

We're fecked in Waterford so then:eek:

vibe666

fizzycyst wrote: »

We're fecked in Waterford so then:eek:

it's going to have to be renamed waterworld. or underwaterford. :pac:

blackdog2

vibe666 wrote: »

it's going to have to be renamed waterworld. or underwaterford. :pac:

or just "water"

maquiladora

The swarm has suddenly haulted since last night. Only a handful of quakes have been recorded since midnight, a huge change from yesterday.

No more updates on this unless there is some sudden change again.

David Calvo on twitter:

I´m absolutely taken aback by El Hierro seismic swarm behaviour....completely spasmodic, now activity plunging down....really really weird.

Edit :

I spoke too soon, it's started back up again...

maquiladora

Total number of earthquakes is over 1,450+ but thats not including hundreds of smaller quakes that haven't been added yet.

No sudden change in depth and the most recent CO2 emission data is not above normal. Haven't heard anything new about ground deformation so apart from the earthquakes there is nothing else that might point towards an eruption, so the alert status remains at Green on El Hierro.

Earthquakes have been getting a bit bigger in the last hour... :

eskimocat

The posts of the activity are really interesting. The starting and stopping is intriguing, but I cannot help picture some Mr Bean type character plugging in and out his TV or something... and inadvertenly causing all the activity

up for anything

http://bigthink.com/ideas/39589

ANDY SCOLLICK on August 5, 2011, 6:55 AM
@NARANCO (on August 3, 2011, 7:54 PM) & others

“In reference to the discussion about safety that went on under the article about the Canarian Islands and the swarm at El Hierro (thank you Erik for the Article and the references!), I came across an article about testing a system for tsunami warnings in the Mediterranean and the NW Atlantic region=”

I’ve asked the Geological Survey of Ireland for clarification regarding Ireland’s participation in next week’s test, and what the status is regarding development of national tsunami early warning system. Will update folks when I have a reply. Ciao

I can guess the answers will be, "What test?" and "When the recession is over." Hope I'm wrong. Not looking forward to belting down the motorway in the wrong direction to scoop up my parents and grandmother and then trying to find my way to Powers the Pot.

PuterMan

up for anything wrote: »

From BT: http://bigthink.com/ideas/39524

Maybe the 'hole' is because it is melt. You won't get quakes in melt, although you should get quakes above if there is inflation going on.

By the way over 24,000 quakes at Baja California after the mag 7.2 and it is still there!

maquiladora

PuterMan wrote: »

By the way over 24,000 quakes at Baja California after the mag 7.2 and it is still there!

Thats true, but in fairness California is a very different to El Hierro.

Take a look at the total number of the earthquakes recorded for the entire Canary Islands region, not just El Hierro, over the past 25 years. And this was only up to July 31st. There have been about 500+ more earthquakes in just the past couple of days on top of the 2011 figure here.

PuterMan

maquiladora wrote: »

Thats true, but in fairness California is a very different to El Hierro.

Take a look at the total number of the earthquakes recorded for the entire Canary Islands region, not just El Hierro, over the past 25 years. And this was only up to July 31st. There have been about 500+ more earthquakes in just the past couple of days on top of the 2011 figure here.

This is of course very true, I was merely illustrating that the number itself is small compared to some.

The area has certain similarities to other volcanic hotspots, where swarms in their 1000's are not unknown. Unfortunately records of such small earthquakes going back over such a timespan are not consistent or accurate, and give no indication of whether this is a unique occurrence (very doubtful) or just another geological day in the life of a volcano.

We tend to forget that our time-scales are very insignificant to Mother Earth.

Interesting to see how it pans out though.

Kippure

With this 100Mev proton burst on august 4th, I suppose we will see some earth quake activity globally very soon?

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?month=08&day=04&year=2011&view=view

maquiladora

Kippure wrote: »

With this 100Mev proton burst on august 4th, I suppose we will see some earth quake activity globally very soon?

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?month=08&day=04&year=2011&view=view

Personally, I don't believe there is any connection between solar activity and tectonic/volcanic earthquakes beyond coincidence.

The swarm at El Hierro has eased off significantly to just a couple of quakes an hour since yesterday. Will is bounce back with another new phase of activity or is it winding down for real this time? Only time will tell.

PuterMan

Kippure wrote: »

With this 100Mev proton burst on august 4th, I suppose we will see some earth quake activity globally very soon?

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?month=08&day=04&year=2011&view=view

As maquiladora said there is no conclusive proof of a connection. Many coincidental occurrences but nothing positive. I am in the middle of a study of this right now going back as far as I can which should be about 10 years.

So far rthe best I have come up with is that earthquakes cause solar flares (there are many where the flare occurred after the quake)

up for anything

Seeing as Macqui has taken the weekend off.

http://bigthink.com/ideas/39621

LURKING on August 7, 2011, 2:28 PM
And a different plot of El Hierro.

A somewhat “cantankerous” plot to put together.

Using a point near the summit at El Golfo, and looking only at the quakes in an arc from 330 to 350 degrees, plotting the depths vs range from that point.

Over lain with an average terrain profile and subsurface contour line for that quadrant.

Old quakes in gray, todays quakes in red.

http://i56.tinypic.com/iee42r.png


LURKING on August 7, 2011, 2:32 PM
Same graph, but rescaled to approximate 1:1 elevation and distance aspect ratio.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2bwndy.png

I didn’t realize that the values were close enough to try and pull that off.

This will give you a better idea of how stable/unstable the slope might be.

fizzycyst

Looks like there's been a few closer to the surface today :eek:

maquiladora

Here we go again, looks like another phase is starting. There were only a handful of earthquakes over the past two days.

Then this happens just in the last hour. :pac:

up for anything

LURKING on August 7, 2011, 6:02 PM
http://i55.tinypic.com/fe2mfo.png

Not

eskimocat wrote: »

The posts of the activity are really interesting. The starting and stopping is intriguing, but I cannot help picture some Mr Bean type character plugging in and out his TV or something... and inadvertenly causing all the activity

large hadron collider thingee ? Maybe he's running amok in it...

maquiladora

For those interested, the swarm is still ongoing. Total number of recorded earthquakes is 2,000+ with many more unaccounted for.

Here is the last hour :

up for anything

Successful first test of tsunami warning system in North East Atlantic, Mediterranean and connected seas

up for anything

From Erik Klemetti of Eruptions Blog at Big Think

DEFORMATION AT EL HIERRO IN THE CANARY ISLANDS
Erik Klemetti on August 24, 2011, 2:53 PM

inShare
2

Well, we've been wondering when we might see more signs of magma rising underneath El Hierro in the Canary Island and now we seem to have got some. Over the last month, the island/volcano has experienced thousands of earthquakes that have waxed and waned in number, but seem to be increasing over time. A GPS survey of the area effected by the earthquakes has now found deformation - namely inflation - over part of the volcano. This inflation is on the order of ~1 cm over the last 20-25 days according to the Instituto Volcanologico de Canarias. There are also slightly increased carbon dioxide and temperature (above background) at the volcano as well. All of these signs add to up new magma rising in the volcano - so the big question becomes "does this mean an eruption is around the corner?" Well, my answer to that is a resounding "maybe". Sure, these are all signs of magma emplacement, but there is likely as much chance of it all "stalling" in the crust as an eruption occurring. It will be how these factors - earthquakes, deformation, gas emissions, temperature - change over the next weeks to months that will give us a better idea of whether we will see the first documented eruption at El Hierro since 550 B.C. (or 1793 A.D., depends on if you trust the historical reports from the late 18th century).

{Special thanks to @teideano for this data from the IVC}.

maquiladora

I knew something would happen as soon as I took my eye off El Hierro!

Rapid inflation, increased gas emissions and temperature anomalies, none of those had been reported before, and of course the swarm has kept going (on and off), over 4,400 recorded now.

Chances of an eruption have risen now that these other boxes have been ticked. The big question though is still when: weeks, months, years....

maquiladora

Remeber this? :pac: Yes, the swarm is still ongoing, on and off.

I'm still keeping half an eye on it every couple of days. No major changes but the activity continues.

I have no idea anymore how many thousand earthquakes have happened since this started.

Here is the last hour:

Em... anyone hear about this?? :eek:

Evacuating over 10,000 people.


http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Canary.Isl.relocate.html

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Cumbre.Vieja.225.pdf

RoisinD

Jake1 wrote: »

Em... anyone hear about this?? :eek:

Evacuating over 10,000 people.


http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Canary.Isl.relocate.html

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Cumbre.Vieja.225.pdf

Interesting. I assume the earthquakes are continuing.

MiNdGaM3

Jake1 wrote: »

Em... anyone hear about this?? :eek:

Evacuating over 10,000 people.


http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Canary.Isl.relocate.html

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Cumbre.Vieja.225.pdf

I looked it up and a few places are saying it's a mis-translation. "trasladar la informacion a la poblacion de EL Hierro" means they're going to pass on the information to the public, not that they're going to re-locate them, which seems to be where the confusion is originating!
Essentially they had a gathering to get some info on what's happening so they can better inform the citizens on the Island.

maquiladora

Jake1 wrote: »

Em... anyone hear about this?? :eek:

Evacuating over 10,000 people.


http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Canary.Isl.relocate.html

http://standeyo.com/NEWS/11_Earth_Changes/110909.Cumbre.Vieja.225.pdf

Google Translate Fail!

This "Millennium Ark" website seems to have just run this article from Google Translate : http://www.avcan.org/?m=Noticias&a=noticia&N=894

The headline of the article is that the population of El Hierro are going to be kept informed about the earthquakes, not evacuated.

This is the line put that Google Translate that is causing the confusion :

Pevolca The Scientific Committee, met this morning at the request of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Security of the Canary Islands Government, decided to relocate the population of El Hierro directly, the most important conclusions from information gathered by seismic and volcanic National Geographic Institute (IGN) and the Institute of the Canary Islands volcanological (non-tip) on the earthquakes recorded on the island since last July.

What it should translate to is something more like this :

Pevolca The Scientific Committee, met this morning at the request of the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Security of the Canary Islands Government, decided to inform the population of El Hierro directly, the most important conclusions from information gathered by seismic and volcanic National Geographic Institute (IGN) and the Institute of the Canary Islands volcanological (non-tip) on the earthquakes recorded on the island since last July.

Yes, the earthquakes are still going on, and some of them are being felt on the surface now. But as the article says, El Hierro is still on a Green pre-alert level, so there is no risk of anything happening any time soon, and no evacuations! It's just an article about the residents being better informed of the situation.

yeah guys, i just learned that myself. Sorry for the mistake.

je55ie

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=236815#

You still following this maquiladora? Any update for us? Thanks

maquiladora

An estimated 3.4 magnitude quake at El Hierro, by far the biggest since this swarm began.