El Hierro Volcano : Green and Yellow alert

This is the most recent El Hierro Volcano eruption report

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With the collaboration of Joke Volta, an El Hierro resident and Julio del Castillo Vivero, photographer.
Read also:  links to all 30 prior parts of this eruption report please go to the bottom of this page
Read also: The 2011 submarine volcanic eruption in El Hierro (Canary Islands), Spain
Useful links  : @VolcanoReport  -  El Hierro Picasa Photo Album
Our Webcam pages :  NO more eruption webcam ! Too expensive says the local government !!

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Update 20/05 – 16:46 UTC
- NO earthquakes so far today (the periods without earthquakes are getting bigger and bigger)
- Joke Volta’s images from late yesterday and earlier today

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Update 19/05 – 14:15 UTC
- Images Joke Volta of today May 19. People following the currents and effects in the Las Calmas sea may recognize a  special round coloring effect on one of today’s images (image 6).  We do not know the exact source, but this does not look like currents but more to a coloring of the water based on degassing.

Update 19/05 – 10:08 UTC
- We have just cut a very big part of the article and have archived it in 3 new parts. Part 40, 41 and 42. The links to these parts can be found at the bottom of this page.
- NO earthquakes so far today.

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Update 18/05 – 17:01 UTC
- We have just published an extensive overview report on the El Hierro eruption written by a group of scientists. Dr. Carracedo, the main contributor to this document, allowed the publication of the EXTREMELY INTERESTING overview document. Click here to read it.

The 2011 submarine volcanic eruption in El Hierro (Canary Islands), Spain – Eruption overview
Forty years after the Teneguía Volcano (La Palma, 1971), a submarine eruption took place off the town of La Restinga, south of El Hierro, the smallest and youngest island of the Canarian Archipelago. Precursors allowed an early detection of the event and its approximate location, suggesting it was submarine. Uncertainties derived from insufficient scientific information available to the authorities during the eruption, leading to disproportionate civil protection measures, which had an impact on the island’s economy based primarily on tourism, while residents experienced extra fear and distress.

Update 18/05 – 17:00 UTC
- NO earthquakes today
- Joke images of today May 18 and an overview poster Joke made from a number of observations

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Update 17/05 – 18:11 UTC
- No earthquakes today
- Joke reports a lot of “Calima” today, hiding most of the details while taking pictures. Her cloud picture from yesterday evening is once more astonishing.

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Update 16/05 – 22:28 UTC
- A late 21:00 M1.1 earthquake occurred at a depth of 7 km to the SW of Frontera

Update 16/05 – 12:14 UTC
- NO earthquakes so far today
- Images which have been taken by Joke Volta earlier today

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Update 15/05 – 20:14 UTC
- 2 more earthquakes tonight. The first one a Magnitude 1.5 earthquake at 17:44 UTC at a depth of 10 km SW of El Pinar.  The second one a Magnitude 0.5 earthquake at 19:03 UTC at a depth of 18 km SW of El Pinar.
- 2 other earthquakes happened to the east of Tenerife at the same location than the other quakes the last couple of months. The strongest one was a M3.3  at a depth of 35 km. this earthquake was also felt on Tenerife.

Update 15/05 – 17:36 UTC
- After 2 days without earthquakes, a new M1.4 earthquake occurred to the SW of El Pinar at 13:38 UTC. Depth 10 km.

Update 15/05 – 10:51 UTC
- The tremor which many have seen on the CHIE HT graph yesterday, was coming from the Peru / Chile M6.4 earthquake. The wave has crossed thousands of km in only 10 minutes! The earthquake in Peru / Chile was slightly damaging in both countries, very unusual for an earthquake at a depth of more than 100 km. Click here for our extensive report on this earthquake.
- A cooperation in between the Cabildo of El Hierro and IGN results in school talks about volcanism at El Hierro. IGN will explain to young Herrenos where the volcanism comes from and what to expect in the future. The lectures will be held on Thursday and Friday.  We welcome the comment of our readers to explain us what possibly the Cabildo part could be in this cooperation, except for inviting IGN to give this lectures.

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Update 14/05 – 23:55 UTC
- Enjoy a short video Julio del Castillo Vivero made a few weeks ago at El Hierro. Julio writes :
A preview of footage from the project on the island of El Hierro I’m developing.
Time Lapse made of 1.500 photographs taken from El Pinar.
Thanks to Joke Volta for her enormous help.
Watch in HD 1080p to see all the stars

Update 14/05 – 19:01 UTC
- NO quake action so far today.
- Today’s pictures from Joke will arrive a little later as we are busy with a number of damaging earthquakes

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Update 13/05 – 21:59 UTC
- NO earthquakes today at El Hierro.
- Images Joke Volta

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Update 12/05 – 20:59 UTC
- Er reader Sissel informed us tonight that the small coast guard ship Salvamar Adhara returned tonight in the port of La Restinga. The ship (red smaller ship) departed at Tenerife at 12:36. We do not know whether the return of the ship, used to capture volcano SLS and to video volcano activity, has anything to do with the sudden rise in earthquake numbers or is purely coincidence.

Update 12/05 – 20:47 UTC
- ER reader Pascal told us a while ago that a 5th earthquake took place to the SW of El Pinar. The preliminary depth was 2 km!.  This extremely shallow depth will be looked at by IGN scientists with a magnifier, as extremely shallow quakes can be the sign of new activity. Often these depth are updated to deeper depths. As we have no GPS data yet, we have only the earthquakes to inform us and that makes a total of 5 tonight. Magnitude 1.2 km Time : 19:10
- ER reader Sissel told us earlier tonight that also the HT graph line at CHIE became thicker. She is right although the current thickness is not yet a reason to expect new activity.

Update 12/05 – 15:10 UTC
- Nr. 4 today at 13:50 UTC and most of the hypocenter’s (depth) are at ca 10 km. The last quake was a M1.2 earthquake at a depth of 8 km to the SW of El Pinar (in fact near the volcano cone in the Las Calmas sea)

Update 12/05 – 09:19 UTC
-The volcano is rumbling again (at least he shows it by the earthquakes). IGN staff must certainly hate these new earthquakes as they can only leave the island when a period of a few weeks without earthquakes would take place. 3 earthquakes in one day, it was a while ago! Let’s follow up what will happen later today. Joke has been informed about the new earthquakes and will take a look in the Las Calmas Sea whether all remains quiet (the contrary would surprise us as much more is needed to generate new activity).
2 new ones have been listed by IGN
The second today to the West of Frontera (. Magnitude 1.6 at a depth of 18 km. Epicenter here
The third to the North West of Frontera. Magnitude 0.9 at a depth of 10 km. Epicenter here  (El Golfo)

Update 12/05 – 06:27 UTC
- Each time that we think : now it is really over, the volcano surprises with a new earthquake. Once again this morning, a 1.6 Magnitude earthquake at a depth of 10 km at 04:14 UTC. Epicenter here.

Update 12/05
- Joke has been very active today trying to come up with pictures she has taken when Julio del Castillo Vivero was visiting El Hierrp. Julio made 245 Gb of video footage and timelapses. He says that he will need several weeks to cut and paste the best pieces. Joke was Julio’s guide and host during his trip as the Cabildo or the Ayuntamiento did not want to lodge Julio during his stay. Shame on them.  The documentary that Julio is making will be another FREE publicity for the island. Paying European journalists airline tickets, lodging them and giving them food is all OK, but helping a young Spanish enthusiast photographer and cineast aiding in his basic needs is a bridge too far. We never said this while Julio was on the island, but now that he left, we really want to stress our point of irritation.  Anyway, Julio told us earlier today that he enjoyed the island enormously, was intrigued by the nice people he met and even more about Joke’s hospitality during his stay.
The images below are all from May 7 until today May 12.
Some days will receive more pictures later today or tomorrow as Joke is still making up for the lost time.
May 12 — May 11 — May 10 — May 9 — May 8 — May 7

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Update 11/05 – 23:16 UTC
- NO earthquake today
- New images from Joke tomorrow.

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Links to earlier parts of this extensive El Hierro eruption report :
(28/7 – early 09)  – (25/09 – 10/10)  -  (11/10 – 13/10) - (14/10 – 17-10)  -  (18/10 – 21/10)  -  (22/10 – 26/10 ) – (27/10 – 31/10 ) – (01/11 – 03/11 ) - (04/11 – 06/11 ) – (07/11 – 08/11) – (09/11- 11/11)  – (12/11 – 15/11)  – (16/11 – 19/11)  – (20/11 – 23/11) – (24/11 – 27/11) – (28/11 – 02/12) - (03/12 – 07/12) – (08/12 – 11/12) – (12/12 – 15/12) – (16/12 – 18/12) – (19/12 – 25/12) – (26/12 – 31/12) – (01/01 – 03/01) – (04/01 – 07/01) – (08/01 – 13/01) – (14/01 – 19/01) - (20/01 – 25/01) -  (26/01 – 30/01) – (31/01 – 04/02) – (05/02 – 10/02) – (11/02 – 16/02) – (17/02 – 23/02) – (24/02 –29/02) – (1/03 – 10/03) – (11/03 – 18/03) – (19/03 – 23/03) – (24/03 – 28/03) – Part 38 (29/03 – 03/04) – Part 39 (04/04 – 10/04) – Part 40 (11/04 – 21/04) – Part 41 (22/04 – 30/04) – Part 42 (01/05 – 10/05)

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Read also : Scientific paper reveals massive historic Tenerife volcano flank collapse
Read also: Economic impact on El Hierro and the Canary Islands if an aerial eruption would occur

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Volcano Discussion Panel : If you are a person who wants to discuss and read about all aspects of volcanoes,  this discussion panel might be a very good place to hang around. Especially if we start speculating about what to happen next, this panel is a great place to look at. Give it a chance.