El Hierro Volcano : Green and Yellow alert – Images of Joke Volta

This is the most recent El Hierro Volcano eruption report

You may follow also Facebook Volcano Page – Google+ Volcanoes -  Twitter : @VolcanoReport
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
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 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.

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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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Update 10/05 – 21:16 UTC
- No pictures from Joke today
- Only an earthquake today below the sea to the east of Tenerife (non-volcanic) M 2.5 at a depth of 30 km

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Update 09/05 – 17:56 UTC
- We have added more images of May 6 from Joke to the already present series
- We have added also the first part of the images from May 7

Update 09/05 – 14:00 UTC
- With surprise, after a week, IGN CSIC with collaboration of Salvamar Adhara have published a 6 minute video of the volcano showing a lot of degassing.
- The images are part the volcanic activity followup by the CSIC and IGN team taken from the Salvamar Adhara. Images are from top parts of the volcano but not the cone. The degassing can later be converted into green and blue stains on the surface as we have seen in the past week and on the video filmed on the Atlantic Explorer from Julio del Castillo Vivero.

Update 09/05 – 06:00 UTC
- New earthquake which occurred at 01:13 at a depth of 15 km with a Magnitude of 0.9 here

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Update 08/05 – 21:03 UTC
- A Magnitude 1.2 earthquake occurred at a depth of 14 km to the North of Frontera at 14:48 UTC

Update 08/05 – 09:39 UTC
- NO earthquakes so far today

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Update 07/05 – 19:12 UTC
- Joke has asked to apologize to our readers that she cannot reach the daily deadline due to a heavy program she is executing with Julio del Castillo Vivero. As said earlier, Julio is currently making an independent documentary on the eruption. Joke is guiding Julio to the different historic eruption spots. We have just now published the May 5 series from their walk to the lighthouse (see below).
- NO new earthquakes today. Unless some important new earthquakes are happening, it looks like we will be near the end of the magma pressure, at least for a while.  Accordingly we expect the Yellow main vent alert to turn green also if we will witness a period of a few weeks without an earthquake.

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Update 06/05 – 15:00 UTC
- 1 very weak earthquake since midnight. A 0.4 Magnitude earthquake at a depth of 11 km in the direct area of the main vent.

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Update 05/05 – 23:00 UTC
- NO earthquakes today
-  Joke has also taken some pictures today, but she still has to select them and they will probably be online within 2 days.
- let’s compensate the delay we had in uploading the images from Joke Volta on May 5. Joke walked with Julio along the southern coast towards the lighthouse and they made a great series of images.

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Update 04/05 – 20:00 UTC
- NO earthquakes or important activity today
- Images of Joke Volta from today May 4, 2012

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Update 03/05 – 20:00 UTC
- NO earthquakes today
- Images Joke and Julio from earlier today

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Update 02/05 – 23:37 UTC
- Images Joke and Julio have taken this morning

Update 02/05 – 20:37 UTC
- NO earthquaks today
- The daily schedule from Joke will be considerably changed the following days. As we have minor activity in the Las Calmas sea and as Joke is accompanying Julio del Castillo Vivero during the recording of his documentary,  a daily visit to La Restinga is not working out well. So, the next days, Joke will be touring the island of El Hierro as a guide to Julio. In case something important is going on in the Las Calmas sea, Joke and Julio will be racing to La Restinga to report about it. In the meantime, we will take you along El Hierro on a sightseeing trip. The picture below shows the spot above La Restinga, where Joke takes her hum human-webcam pictures.

Update 02/05 – 08:25 UTC
- Joke Volta and Julio del Castillo Vivero went to check from La Restinga this morning if there was a stain or jacuzzi. None of them were observed today.
- Two earthquakes yesterday night of M 1.0. No earthquakes since midnight.

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Update 01/05 – 19:39 UTC
- Joke Volta’s images of the day

Update 01/05 – 09:13 UTC

Remark from Earthquake-Report.com after 10 months of following the volcano activity
At Earthquake-Report.com we are getting more and more frustrated about the NON-communicative attitude of the Spanish scientists and politicians. Wherever they come from (mainland or the Canaries), they are looking at the international community as non-existent (only for tourism promotion). They have treated the El Hierro eruption so far as a Nationalistic event.  All involved scientists in Spain are promptly speaking English at international conferences, but have hardly exchanged a word in English since the beginning of the eruption. We have to admit that the local Spanish press from Diario El Hierro and Diario de Avisos, to name a few but not the only ones, did a great job in collecting information. We received a max. of 2 emails with 3 sentences each, from scientists reacting on what we wrote (in nearly 10 months). They could have used various channels to reach us. Only the Non-Profit SOS Oceanos crew was as it should have been. Not too many words, open minded towards Joke and exchanging a few notes. We like SOS Oceanos eternally for this attitude .
Since the beginning of the eruption, Earthquake-Report El Hierro articles have been read by more than 1.5 million unique visitors. A lot of these readers are potential tourists but do have a double feeling about El Hierro.  We did not write it down and have even erased comments saying that due to the narrow mind of the local politicians, they did cancel a programmed trip to El Hierro.  What a pity!
It looks like open communication is still not an issue in science neither. May we remind science that one of the important sponsors of their scientific research is the European Union. The majority of our El Hierro readers are European Union citizens and should be more respected as they all pay taxes to sustain this research.
The local community volcano followers at AVCAN are treated a little better, but also the great AVCAN site lacks involvement of local politicians and National scientists. The big difference vs ER is the close relations they have with Canary Islands scientists.
Science people from all over the world,  you are living in 2012!, an era with an open Internet were people from all over the world want to be instantly informed about what is going on. Hiding information and even blackening webcams is an attitude from the past. Informing the vast interested worldwide community should be one of your tasks only as a respect to those paying for your research.  We know of course that most scientists are burdened with writing Papers who are in most cases distributed behind Paying Walls of Elsevier and Springer and who are having a readership of 1% or less from what we do, but this may be no reason to not participate at the open Internet. Letting people pay to read something they have sponsored themselves with their taxpayers money has no morale!
From the very start of this website ER has invited science to contribute to our site an a way that a normal interested person can understand what is written. We can only repeat it over and over again.

Update 01/05 – 08:30 UTC
- 1 earthquake this morning. The epicenter was located in El Golfo at a depth of 18 km. Magnitude : 1.6
- One of the ULPGC/Qstar team members, Mr. Antonio Gonzales Ramos, is giving more details of what they have noticed on their recent Atlantic Explorer trip (the one Julio del Castillo Vivero joined) in the AVCAN website.
* Activity and colored waters were alternated with periods of no activity (activity during the morning hours and no activity in the afternoon)
* This activity was also reflected in the PH which was 7 during the morning and 7.5 during the afternoon. The normal Ph in the Ocean is higher than 8.2. This slightly acidic Ph is caused by the CO2 in the water
* The green color of the water was due to complex metallic chemicals (oxides)
* Ashes were found in the surface waters as well as in the sampling at a depth of 50 meter
* The column of CO2 and ashes in the water are the main reason that small fish are not surviving when they pass in this acidic streaming. This explains also the seagulls eating these killed fish above the vent. In ER terms this means that when the images of Joke are showing seagulls above the main vent, that the water has probably a lower Ph in that area.
* Mr. Gonzales also indicates that the seagulls are the first ones to see a coloring of the gas emission points. As they know that this color means “food”, they immediately are hanging around.
This content is translated by ER from the original comment in the Avcan site

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Update 30/04 – 19:38 UTC
- Joke Volta’s pictures of the day

Update 30/04 – 09:38 UTC
- 1 (very weak) earthquake so far today. A M0.4 at a depth of 8 km to the SW of El Pinar
- Below an image from ER reader Marc Delva who stayed as a tourist at El Hierro. The picture was taken on April 28 while the Atlantic Explorer was exploring the main vent site (see also close by picture from the main vent and the seagulls below). This picture is showing what we call as a faint stain.

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Update 29/04 – 22:50 UTC
- At 21:53 today, a M 1.3 earthquake occurred at a depth of 13 km to the SW of El Pinar

Update 29/04 – 16:45 UTC
- NO earthquakes today
- Video made by Julio del Castillo Vivero yesterday on board of the Qstar Atlantic Explorer. Julio writes : Filmed the 28th of April onboard the Atlantic Explorer with QStar Crew Members and ULPGC scientists above the main vent where many seagulls are looking for dead small fish.

Update 29/04 – 16:00 UTC
- Joke Volta images of the day

Update 29/04 – 10:25 UTC
- A stain is present in Las Calmas sea this morning. No jacuzzi has been observed. This stain could be the remains of yesterday’s activity. Joke images will be online later today.

Update 29/04 – 10:20 UTC
- An amazing picture of the waters of the vent area which was photographed yesterday by Julio del Castillo Vivero. Colored waters with a lot of seagulls having lunch with dead fish

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Update 28/04 – 23:48 UTC
As written earlier, Julio del Castillo Vivero was invited by the crew of the Atlantic Explorer to sail with them to the vent area. He wrote the following :
Hello, very good day with the Atlantic Explorer, the crew of Qstar and the scientists of ULPGC. I was above the volcano! A very special moment for me after many months following the eruption. I saw lots of seagulls above the main vent, eating dead fish, around the size of 10cm that was emerging to the surface.
The stain was very clearly visible today from the boat, with a green color, not super strong concentrated as used to, but quite clear.
I didn’t get seasick at all, it was very good. Sea was calm in the morning and then also sunny from midday.
Great day! Great people! Great images!
(ER : strange that there are still dead fish above the main vent – we also noticed on Jokes pictures in the middle of the week that a lot of seagulls were flying above the vent area.
The news coming in from the Atlantic Explorer is even more important as Joke has not seen any action in the sea today, which means that the volcano can erupt without a clear visual sign on the outside. Good to know is that seagulls on the vent area are indicating dead fish and thus erupting material and that a stain clearly indicates action which is more than degassing)

Update 28/04 – 22:55 UTC
- 1 additional earthquake today and if not revised , extremely shallow at 1 km. Magnitude 1.0. Time 21:32. Epicenter in El Golfo

Update 28/04 – 13:17 UTC
- 1 earthquake since midnight. A M1.4 magnitude quake at a depth of 15 km on this location
- Julio del Castillo Vivero is on board of the Atlantic Explorer. Luckily for him the sea is calm reports Joke (an Ocean swell is even with calm weather often enough to get seasick!).  Let’s hope that Julio will have some nice pictures later today. The ROV will not be used today as the people on board of the ship have a bunch of other tasks. Julio has send the image below from the ship a little earlier. It shows the volcano cone at his present depth. We will have to wait until tonight to find out what the colors really mean.
I  a direct message to us, Julio writes : ERUPTION STILL ONGOING

Update 28/04
- Joke pictures of today. We have placed the pictures at the bottom of todays report, because we do think that the other information is more important today.

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Update 27/04 – 23:57 UTC
- As promised, Joke Volta’s image of April 27

Update 27/04 – 14:57 UTC
- The Atlantic Explorer  (Qstar ship) is back in La Restinga. On board scientists of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.  The ship will be in the Las Calmas sea on Saturday to accomplish more tests. We do not know yet if a ROV would be used.
- Images of Joke Volta will be loaded later today
- Julio del Castillo Vivero, as part his documentary, filmed the entrance in the harbour of the Atlantic Explorer. Enjoy this HD view of the moment!

Update 27/04 – 10:00 UTC
- Joke and Julio went to La Restinga this morning to check up on the volcano situation. No stain or jacuzzi was seen this morning. Photographs will be online later today.
- No earthquakes reported since midnight.
- Julio del Castillo Vivero, the time lapse specialist, went with Joke yesterday to the Movistar webcam point (called by Joke Human Webcam spot) and made a number of pictures every x seconds. He then framed them together to a time lapse of even better quality then the earlier Movistar pictures.

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Update 26/04 – 18:10 UTC
- Joke’s images of today April 26. Joke was accompanied today by Julio del Castillo Vivero, who is making a documentary movie on El Hierro and it’s volcanism.

Update 26/04 – 13:47 UTC
- 2 earthquakes so far today (the volcano does not want the IGN staff to go home). Involcan and Iter may have booked the volcano for a Surtseyan eruption during their “1^st Anniversary Conference of the 2011-2012 submarine eruption off the coast of El Hierro”
At 09:00, a M1.1 earthquake occurred at a depth of 18 km with epicenter to the SW of El Pinar
At 13:00, a M0.9 earthquake occurred at a depth of 14 km with epicenter to the SW of El Pinar

Update 26/04 – 09:09 UTC – Science will meet @ El Hierro in October
Involcan and ITER will be hosting the “1^st Anniversary Conference of the 2011-2012 submarine eruption off the coast of El Hierro”
The program consists of Scientific and technical discussions mainly related to volcanic risk management on oceanic and active island volcanoes as well as to enhance know-how exchange to understand and improve the multi-disciplinary initiatives for reducing volcanic risk in islands. A special session of this workshop will be related to the 2011-12 submarine eruption off the southern coast of El Hierro and its impact on the island community. The 2012 El Hierro Conference will be also an ideal forum to discuss about the plus side of living in active volcanoes since the short-term hazards posed by volcanoes are strongly balanced by benefits of volcanism over geologic time (volcano tourism, geothermal energy, balneology, etc.).
- The conference will be held at El Pinar Cultural Center which is located at the town of El Pinar. El Hierro offers several hotels and apartments distributed by all the island that allows to welcome the conference participants. Housing facilities close to the Conference Venue are available at La Restinga Village and El Pinar’s downtown. Shuttle bus from La Restinga to the Conference Venue will be provided free of charge by the organization for the conference participants.
- Three scientific excursions are planned : One day intra meeting field trip to visit several major volcanological features of El Hierro Island, One day intra meeting field trip to visit El Hierro submarine volcanic environment and Two-day post-conference field trip on “Canary Islands’ large gravitational landslides and related tsunamis” which will be led by Mercedes Ferrer (IGME), Luis Gonzalez de Vallejo (INVOLCAN), Juan Jesús Coello Bravo (INVOLCAN), José Madeira (University of Lisboa) and Cesar Andrade (University of Lisboa).
- More information on the conference, click here

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Update 25/04 – 22:32 UTC
- Late today, but still before midnight Joke’s pictures of April 25. The seemingly volcano picture is just a formation of clouds !

Update 25/04 – 21:32 UTC
- Joke and Julio are reporting a jacuzzi tonight (see picture below) – people who saw it (lasted 30 minutes) have informed Joke on what was going on.
- Joke will send her pictures tomorrow morning

Update 25/04 – 15:25 UTC
- Time lapse specialist and photographer, Julio del Castillo Vivero is on the island to produce a documentary on El Hierro and especially on the eruption.  He has made a script and will have interviews with many people including Joke (of course). Julio is from Madrid and studies in the UK. Our readers know him from the many time lapses he made when the volcano was sending strong activity to the surface waters. Julio was also a vivid commenter on the AVCAN website.  Click here to take a glimpse on Julio’s website.
- NO earthquakes since midnight
- Joke’s images will arrive a little later today.

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Update 24/04 – 17:25 UTC
- 1 earthquake since midnight. A 1.2 magnitude at a depth of 18 km. The earthquake occurred at 01:20 UTC this morning. Epicenter here.
- Mr. Alpidio Armas has decided to invite (German) journalists and tourism professionals to show them all facets from El Hierro including a Volcanic Experience.

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Update 23/04 – 12:32 UTC
- Joke reports a greenish stain carried by the currents in the main vent area
- AVCAN stresses that the activity at El Hierro has decreased considerably but that there are no signs that the pressurization of the island is gone completely
- NO earthquakes since midnight
- Images Joke Volta

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Update 22/04 – 17:12 UTC
- Joke’s pictures of the day

Update 22/04 – 11:56 UTC
- Joke reports that the Las Calmas sea has again a stain this morning. Additionally she says that there are stronger wave patterns in the main vent area. Pictures will follow soon.
- According to the local media, Mr. Alpidio Armas is fiercely against maintaining the yellow alert at the volcano vent in the Las Calmas Sea. In other words, Mr. Armas (in the international community better known as Mr. Weapons because of the Google translation) is criticizing the decision of Pevolca (he is a minority part of Pevolca).
We (ER) think this is a highly irresponsible attitude which can also be labeled as denying the sunlight! Every couple of days we have proof that some degassing is continuing and that even faint stains are formed + earthquakes are continuing (even today) stressing that the pressure below the island is not gone completely.  What Mr. Armas wants is completely inactive and is no danger anymore, even above the main vent. Since scientists have claimed that the eruption was completely halted, the cone has grown by 2 meters !  In football terms (called soccer in the USA), we think Mr. Armas should receive a red card. Of course for local supporters, he is only saying the truth and he even does not need a yellow card.
One important advise to Mr. Armas : leave volcanism to those who understand what they are talking about : IGN, IEO, ITER and INVOLCAN.

Update 22/04 – 10:05 UTC
- A new earthquake occurred at 08:17 UTC – Magnitude : 1.7 at a depth of 17 km to the SW of El Pinar (direct main vent area)

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Update 21/04 – 18:29 UTC
- Joke Volta’s images of the day

Update 21/04 – 13:59 UTC
- NO earthquakes so far today.
- Julio del Castillo Vivero just mentioned us a video showing the recovery of the fish at the La Restinga area. The video and pictures combined in the video have been recorded and taken in March 2012  and are contradicting the horror stories of the scientists that all marine life (including vegetation) would have been damaged to a high degree.  Enjoy the wonderful submarine world of El Hierro.

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Update 20/04 – 12:17 UTC
- Joke Volta’s images of today April 20. Calima (African desert dust fog) has finally gone and the pictures are getting more colorful.

Update 20/04 – 07:50 UTC
- NO listed earthquakes since midnight

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Update 19/04 – 23:55 UTC
- A third El Hierro earthquake at 18:59 today. Magnitude 0.7, depth 12 km. Epicenter here.
- We have changed the title a little bit to reflect the current situation. No immediate risk to the island anymore, but still some minor volcanic activity (mainly earthquakes and a little degassing) around the main vent.

Update 19/04 – 15:21 UTC
- It looks like the volcano doesn’t like Pevolca or Mr. Armas !.  Almost together with Mr. Armas tweet, the ground was shaking again, a M1.2 earthquake at 13:01 UTC at a depth of 10 km, here

Update 19/04 – 14:09 UTC
- More details have been reported a little later, such as :
* the alert level of the island itself will change from Yellow to Green
* the area surrounding the main vent is downgraded from Red to Yellow (in other words, some limited vigilance remains around the volcano)
* The BIO Las Palmas (Oceanographic vessel), who made some extensive bathymetry last week, measured the depth of the cone at 86 meter.
* Today’s images of Joke Volta

Update 19/04 – 12:09 UTC
- In a short twitter message from the Cabildo de Hierro (office of Mr. Alpidio Armas),  the Green Alert of the entire island has been declared by Pevolca. Due to the very slim activity of the last couple of weeks (only faint stains and degassing), the Alert level change seems logical to Earthquake-Report.com

Update 19/04 – 11:03 UTC
- We have noticed one M2.2 earthquake at a depth of 32 km at 08:32 UTC at a very unusual place, which may explain the difference in depth.

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Update 18/04 – 21:32 UTC
- ER reader John commented on our remark from this morning that we did not know where CHIE station was exactly. He said : found the location of CHIE it is Latitude 27.72700 Longitude -17.96070 . Information found at http://www.isc.ac.uk/cgi-bin/stations?listr=Canary+Islands:Europe. Thank you John.
- 1 new earthquake at 14:37 UTC at a depth of 1 km (mostly IGN revises these shallow depths which has not been done so far)  ! Magnitude : 0.5. Epicenter here

Update 18/04 – 12:12 UTC
- Joke Volta images of today April 18, a “Calima” day (special regional weather type). Joke hasn’t seen anything special today, but nevertheless she continues to make pictures mainly to have a full series of visuals.

Update 18/04 – 10:52 UTC
- 1 earthquake since midnight. Magnitude 1.4 at a depth of 13 km. Epicenter here
- ER reader Leona has commented that it looks that the thickness of the CHIE HT line has increased since more than 24 hours now. We have the same feeling and have therefore increased the line with the same factor today and 4 days ago. Of course this should not mean anything, as it maybe temporary noise or even instrumental error margin. We neither have an idea where CHIE comes from. El Hierro has a lot of different instruments.

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Update 17/04 – 14:40 UTC
- Both the Chile, Valparaiso Mw6.7 earthquake and the Papua New Guinea Mw6.8 earthquake can be seen on the CHIE El Hierro graph.
- Joke Volta images of the day

Update 17/04 – 10:06 UTC
- We have been busy with numerous big shakes all around the globe (Chile, PNG, Kenya).  We think that scientist should start to study influences of the Mw8.6 mega-quake on Volcano and Earthquakes in far away locations. What we have written the last 7 days in earthquake-report.com can be called “impressive”. There is however no evidence yet that such a relation would exist.
- NO earthquakes listed by IGN since midnight UTC

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Update 16/04 – 17:20 UTC
- Joke saw a brownish color at the Naos bay shortly after the big quake (epicenter of the earthquake and brownish area are not the same though).
- Big event today in La Restinga (besides the strong quakes). A very popular morning show from the National Spanish Radio Network was using the Restingolita Info Center in La Restinga as a temporary studio. A lot of talking with always the same people who have to explain what has happened (scientists wherever in the world (not only in Spain) still think that 30 seconds of glory on network TV or Radio will change their status forever). Sharing information with sites like us (read you), seems to be a lot more difficult.
The whole group of important people cued to appear before the microphone with an imminent role to Mr. Alpidio Armas, the person who doesn’t want to share a webcam with the outside world and does want to make the illusion that what he was asked for today does not exist anymore.

Update 16/04 – 12:42 UTC
- 2 serious earthquakes in a matter of 12 minutes (Thank to ER reader Diana for telling us)
At first a Magnitude 3.1 3.0 earthquake at a depth of 14 15 km to the SW of El Pinar
followed by a second M2.2 earthquake at a depth of 19 km also to the SW of El Pinar

Update 16/04 – 08:15 UTC
- NO earthquakes since midnight today

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Update 15/04 – 23:55 UTC
- At 23:39 an earthquake occurred to the SW of El Pinar at a depth of 11 km. Magnitude : 1.6

Update 15/04 – 18:26 UTC
- Joke’s selection of today’s images.

Update 15/04 – 11:38 UTC
- First pictures of April 15 from Joke Volta.  The pictures have been taken from El Pinar, where Joke lives.  Joke reports that a stain (blue-green) can well be seen from above. Hard to see on the images however.
- The arrival of jellyfish in the Canary Islands waters has never been so huge since 1994,  following CSIC and the Instituto de Ciencias de Mar de Barcelona. Both scientific institutions have not given an explanation for the sudden rise in number.

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Update 14/04 – 16:45 UTC
- This time we did it before the remarks of ER reader Colin, who is reading our pages on a satellite internet link (which takes a fair amount of time to load).  So, we did create 2 new archive parts (part 38 and part 39). The links to the older parts (March 29 to April 10) can be found at the bottom of this main article.

Update 14/04 – 15:24 UTC
- Joke Volta’s full series of images from today. Every picture carries Joke explanation of what she thinks she is seeing.

Update 14/04 – 11:06 UTC
- At 02:06, a M1.3 earthquake occurred at a depth of 9 km to the south of La Restinga

Update 14/04 – 10:02 UTC
- Joke reported a Green-Blueish stain originating in the main vent area and carried by currents to the coast and even the port of La Restinga. Joke often distinct with her eyes more colors than she can capture on the pictures. This morning she saw “intriguing” foam at a certain part of the stain ending.

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Update 13/04 – 23:55 UTC
- A second earthquake was listed today by IGN. A M1.1 earthquake at a depth of 16 km to the SW of El Pinar

Update 13/04 – 20:07 UTC
- Joke made a lot more pictures today than the first batch. On some of them you will see the Salvamar Adhara sailing out and hanging above the volcano vent, on others a faint stain

Update 13/04 – 14:20 UTC
- High visit at La Restinga this morning.  Senators (Spanish parliament Madrid) have been informed about the El Hierro eruption. IGN and CSIC scientists have given explanatory sessions on the activity. As promised earlier today, Joke could profit from a few free moments from a senator and asked him to support the call of the International Community to get the webcams back. Whenever this Senator (we know his name) would be able to bring our webcam back, we will print a huge image in this site thanking him for his support to the good cause !

Update 13/04 – 10:34 UTC
- 1 very weak earthquake since midnight : a M0.2 at a depth of 28 km to the SW of Frontera
- First morning pictures from Joke Volta (below the text of Ramon Ortiz)
- Joke had a conversation with Don Domingo Gimeno, a scientist who did research on Restingolitas (SLS)  in Barcelona. He was the scientist who explained that the white material at the inside of the SLS consisted of an explosive magmatic material. He was almost instantly countered in his opinion by other scientists saying that the white material was of a sediment type.  Don Domingo Gimeno did some research on the Restingolita at the request of the village of El Pinar.
- Spanish senators are currently visiting La Restinga and the Restingolita information center. Joke will try to speak to one or more of them and will ask to reactivate the webcam.
- Joke wrote an Email to chief scientist Ramon Ortiz (advisor IGN, researcher CSIC and sometimes spokesperson in Pevolca on scientific issues) asking him how possibly the Sumatra earthquake could influence the El Hierro eruption effects (a stain was observed after the arrival of the earthquake waves at El Hierro).  This is Mr. Ortiz answer :

“Cuando hay un terremoto tan grande como los del dia 11 y 12 (8.6 y 8.2 en Sumatra y 6.9 en Baja California), las ondas sismicas recorren varias veces el planta y al atravesar los sistemas magmaticos producen una liberacion de gas (disfusion rectificada) que en algunos casos puede llegar a disparar un erupcion, aunque en general solo producen mayor emision de gas (similar a cuando se agita una botella de Cava) y por eso aumento la emision de gas en la restinga y aparecio la mancha”

Translation
“When an earthquake as large as those on April 11 and April 12 occur  (8.6 and 8.2 in Sumatra and 6.9 in Baja California), seismic waves travel several times through the earth and magmatic systems produce a release of gas (disfusion rectificada) that in some cases can trigger an eruption (…), although in general only produce a greater emission of gas (similar to when you shake a bottle of Cava (Spanish Champagne)) and thus the increase the emission of gas in La Restinga and a stain appeared”

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Update 12/04 – 22:40 UTC
- Joke Volta’s afternoon images

Update 12/04 – 20:45 UTC

– The image above is an echogram, done by the IEO Cornide de Saavedra boat between the 5th and 9th of April, showing the volcano realeasing ash and big quantities of CO2.
- Sulphur is not coming out any more, responsible for green stains, same way we don’t see this on Joke Volta’s daily photographs, but what we have seen recently is CO2, which is reflected as a blue concentrated stain and jacuzzi.
- In an area of 500 meters around the summit, the are still some significant changes seen.
- Scientists believed the eruption should have ended already, officially,  it did on the 15th of March, but this, again, proves it had not stopped. Putting back online webcams now would be a very good way to follow this stage of the eruption process.
- More information about pH concentrations can be found in this link of Spanish newspaper Qué!

Update 12/04 – 18:47 UTC
Remaining part of Joke Volta’s morning and midday pictures

Update 12/04 – 14:06 UTC
- ETNA (Italy) is currently having a new paroxysm or eruption (thank you Er reader Roland for informing us). Click here for our Volcano News page with links to the best webcams.  Julio del Castillo Vivero made a time lapse of today’s Etna eruption. Enjoy the beauty of nature.

Update 12/04 – 09:22 UTC
- Joke reports that a stain has been seen in the Las Calmas sea. She is talking about a short reactivation of the volcano yesterday afternoon. Joke says that the stain was confirmed by the IGN people. In a first reaction Roman Ortiz has related the stain to the Sumatra earthquake …
- From our side, following with large in-depth articles on every world quake, we are stressing that the increase of the amplitudes in the CHIE graph are all of them related to very strong to massive earthquakes in different parts of the world. (Mexico x3 + Sumatra). Scientists do not agree on a direct relation in between earthquakes (even very powerful earthquakes) and volcano activity.
- A ship is currently executing a bathymetry mission in front of the La Restinga coast. Julio del Castillo Vivero  reports that it will be probably the Oceanographic ship Las Palmas (A52)

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Update 11/04 – 17:30 UTC
- ER reader Nataly told us about a strong signal on many seismographs at the Canary islands. The CHIE graph below is also indicating it.  These are the 2 massive earthquakes in Indonesia who are picked up by all seismographs in the world. The difference in time between the occurence of the earthquake and the time which is shown on the CHIE graph is the travel time of the earthquake wave !

Update 11/04 – 15:57 UTC
- As you probably all would understand is that we had a very hard time reporting the M8.6 Sumatra Indonesia earthquake. Since midnight earthquake-report.com was consulted by more than 70,000 unique visitors, probably breaking a new record. The server was down many times (he was not down but went into safety modus) as he was  saturated by too many visitors.

Update 11/04 – 15:50 UTC
- Morning images Joke Volta

Update 11/04 – 08:28 UTC
- 1 Magnitude 1.1 earthquake at a depth of 20 km to the SW of El Pinar (approx. 10 km from La Restinga !)
- An AVCAN commenter mentioned a link to a very interesting document on Volcano lave tubes speleology at El Hierro. Click here to consult the document, but in case you are going to use it, please be careful !
- A group of Senators from the Spanish parliament  (1 per fraction) will make an incentive tour to El Hierro, next Thursday. If weather and conditions are allowing it, the visiting group may make a boat tour to the volcano vent. Senators and a volcano, an explosive cocktail ?

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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)

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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.

Update 05/04 – 14:42 UTC
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