When Will The Canary Sing?
Evacuations of Canary Islands Begin
A 4.3 magnitude earthquake struck El Hierro, the smallest of The Canary Islands, late Saturday night — the strongest earthquake to be recorded on the Spanish island since an unprecedented earthquake swarm began a few weeks ago.
The Instituto Geografico Nacional (IGN) has reported an increase in the intensity of earthquakes recorded on El Hierro, the smallest of The Canary Islands, during the past 48 hours.
The number of earthquakes recorded since July 17 , 2011 on El Hierros has now reached 10,000, according to the IGN.
The IGN has also confirmed surface deformations exceeding 35mm on the 280-sqkm island, where residents have been put on alert for a possible volcanic eruption.
The agency has confirmed that 886 earthquakes, most of them located in the sea to the southwest of the island, have been recorded in the seven days since Oct. 2.
Since Friday morning, there have been more than two dozen earthquakes exceeding 3.0 on the Richter Scale with epicentres both North and South of the NW Ridge and depths between 10 and 15 km have been recorded. The strongest of the two dozen earthquakes exceeding 3.0 on the Richter Scale measured 4.3 magnitude on the Richter Scale. It was recorded on Saturday night at a depth of 12 km. The quake produced small rockslides with no injuries reported.
Hierro, a shield volcano, has had a single historic eruption from the Volcan de Lomo Negro vent in 1793. The eruption lasted approximately one month and produced lava flows.
The recent surge in the number and intensity of earthquakes prompted officials from the IGN and The Canary Islands Government to raise the alert level for the Hierro volcano to ‘Yellow’ late last month. The alert remained in place on Sunday.
An Oct. 8 advisory by United States Army Intelligence reported that “An intensified sustained earthquake swarm is now taking place at the Canary Islands and it appears the magma is now on the move again bubbling closer to the surface and incinerating
more rock in the process. Over the last 24 hours, we’ve seen the depths of the tremors rising up to within 11 km from a depth average of about 14.5 to 15 km. The number of seismic volcanic tremors has also doubled at El Hierro since Wednesday.”
The dramatic rise in recorded earthquakes on El Hierro last week prompted officials to evacuate some local residents, shut El Hierro’s main tunnel, and close local schools.
Scientists from several countries have cautioned that should a volcanic eruption occur and part of the Hierro land mass sluff off into the ocean, a mega-tsunami could erupt and have a dramatic effect on the Eastern shores of the United States, where people within a 20-mile radius of the coast would have about eight hours to evacuate.
