Video May Show First Signs Of El Hierro Breaking Water Surface

New video from earthquake-report.com may show what could be the first signs of the El Hierro submarine cone breaking the water's surface. While the shot is out of focus, the light burst does appear to be on or very near the 'jacuzzi' area. The video was taken at midnight, and I've reviewed it several times. It does in fact look like it could be a lava burst... we will have to see. Judge for yourself below. This could very well be the beginning of the new island!

The usual player is not loading the video properly in the HTML, so I'll try and fix it. In the meantime, you can see the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=zV5wGToiVZ0#!

The apparent explosion occurs approximately 11 seconds into the video, where you can see a bright initial burst, followed by another a second or so later which is dimmer, but appears to 'fizzle' out slowly. After that the rest of the video is blank. I will be watching the nightcam tonight. A screenshot is below of the 2nd explosion.

12/14 Update
More reports have surfaced from earthquake-report.com regarding lights or incandescence at or near the jacuzzi area at El Hierro. While video has been posted on their website, it is lacking a point of reference, ie: the docks and town lights, so it really could be anything at this point. There is no way to tell if the new video is authentic, or even shot at the correct angle, so I will withhold judgment. In any case, if it does in fact turn out to be a second display of surface incandescence, this would mean that the birth of a new island is quite near.

Indonesia's Mount Marapi Raised To Alert Level 2

Volcanologist John Seach has reported that Indonesia's Mount Marapi (Not to be confused by Merapi), has had over 43 volcanic quakes during December 12th, prompting the government to raise the alert level to 2 (out of 4), and instituting an exclusion zone around the volcano. Marapi is the most active volcano on Sumatra, erupting nearly every year taking only 1-2 year breaks (usually). The volcano has been responsible for a few deaths in it's past due to pyroclastic flows, and lahars. Since the 1990's however, the government has been quite serious about protecting the residents through evacuations and exclusion zones.

Marapi typically erupts clouds of ash and gas, and lava flows thus far have been contained within the crater, seldom reaching outside its rim or the summit. It is one of Indonesia's most symmetrical and beautiful stratovolcanoes. If anything further develops with this volcano (and I'm sure it probably will) I will post updates, however eruptions from this volcano are fairly routine, and so are the evacuation procedures. 

Speculation Grows Regarding 2nd Vent At El Hierro

El Hierro continues to be a very active scene for it's eruption. Today (Dec 13th) sees strong jacuzzi action south of La Restinga, while earthquakes are still down to zero. Earthquakes had migrated North to the bay of El Golfo, and were clustered a mile or so North of the coast. These quakes have ceased, leading some to believe that a possible second vent has finally opened. This is not out of the question, however there is still no proof of this at this time.

The reasoning behind this line of thinking is the fact that when earthquakes ceased South of La Restinga, the vent had entered a stable eruptive pattern. Harmonic tremor continues to be consistent with explosive bursts occurring at regular intervals. However, again we can't be certain that these explosions are exclusive to the La Restinga vent, and could be tied to underwater activity North of El Golfo. But this is still all speculation on the parts of bloggers, and even some scientists.

Due to the depths at El Golfo, it is highly impractical to attempt to monitor the situation with an ROV, or other equipment. It's simply too costly, and difficult at this time. INVOLCAN has mainly monitored the situation near La Restinga, as it's the only vent currently with the potential to affect island residents should it break the surface and enter an ash-producing phase, or island building phase. Gases would be freely released into breathable space, and ash could easily be blown to La Restinga, and the rest of the island. This of course has not occurred yet, but they are monitoring the situation closely.

This morning saw strong activity at the La Restinga vent, with no signs of slowing down. Once lava starts to flow freely from the fissure, it forms a submarine cinder cone (most likely), which concentrates the area where the lava exits the magma chamber. Earlier in the month we saw at least two, possibly three, separate "jacuzzis", which mow appear to have coalesced into one large vent at the summit of the cone. This is normal. Even on land, this is exactly how the cone building phase occurs. We've seen several recent events on land that were similar, like the Nyamuragira eruption that began last month, and the fissure eruption at Fimmvörðuháls near Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland. Both events started with strong fissures, but ended up as cinder cones when the lava started to pile up.

Whether or not a second vent has opened in El Golfo is anyone's guess. We likely will not know until INVOLCAN allows underwater teams to survey the area after the situation has calmed down, or the eruption ceases. INVOLCAN is gathering as much info as possible about this eruption, as El Hierro has traditionally been the LEAST studied volcano of the Canary Islands, with more attention being paid to La Palma and Tenerife historically. Even though El Hierro is the youngest of the Canary Islands, it seems nobody ever anticipated an eruption. The last eruption (which is unconfirmed by Smithsonian GVP, but seems to be local fact in El Hierro) was supposedly in 1793, so two centuries and some change is a long time to sit and watch a dormant volcano.

The Island of La Palma is of interest to the media, and doomsayers, who every once in a while like to scare people on the East Coast of the USA by saying a collapse of the island would send a several hundred foot high tsunami that could wipe out New York. This does have a basis in fact, however I don't think it's necessary to begin worrying about something you can't possibly predict, have no control over, and likely wouldn't happen in our lifetime. Just like all the hype about Yellowstone, Rotorua, or Toba, this is probably some information you could live without.

Also, I apologize for posting so frequently about El Hierro (even though I'm sure some people appreciate it). The Earth has been rather quiet in terms of new eruptions this month, and this one still seems to be the most exciting news. When I get a hold of any information on other eruptions, you can be assured that I will write about them!

Quakes Stop At El Hierro, But Eruption Continues

Earthquake activity has all but ceased at El Hierro volcano in the Canary Islands, however the eruption is ongoing. There has been much speculation as to whether or not the cessation of earthquakes indicates that the eruption might be dying down. This is not the case. As many seismologists and volcanologists have pointed out, earthquakes typically precede volcanic eruptions, and sometimes stop when the vent or eruption reaches a more stable phase. New data indicates that the submarine vent at El Hierro has grown in size, and webcams still show strong 'jacuzzi' action.

This eruption, in my opinion, looks like it will be a long term one. The many thousands of earthquakes that preceded the eruption indicate a large magma chamber. Earthquakes are caused when rock breaks apart, slips, or fractures. Given the size, depth, and other locational data, it appears that the magma chamber is at least as large as the island itself, although without more advanced analysis, this is just speculation on my part.

The characteristics of this eruption are similar to the volcano Loihi in Hawaii. Loihi is periodically active off of Hawaii's South coast, and will eventually build a new island. The main difference between Loihi and El Hierro are the depths at which they are located. El Hierro's new vent is much shallower than Loihi and has a much better chance of breaching the surface of the ocean in our lifetime, and possibly during this current eruption, than Loihi. Loihi is assumed to breach the surface at some point within the next 10,000 years (too bad we won't be around to see it!). El Hierro's vent is much closer to the surface- within 100 meters, and given the pace of the eruption, it is still quite likely some lucky people will be able to see it born.

So long story short, the eruption continues even though earthquakes have pretty much stopped. Harmonic tremor does continue to register a steady stream of underwater explosions, and the vent is still quite active. At this pace, I would theorize that the volcano would break the water's surface in the next month or so, but of course, that's up to the volcano.


A lot of speculation is also taking place regarding El Hierro that has no basis in fact whatsoever. The blog earthquake-report.com suggested that a NASA satellite photo showed a 'plume' originating from the vent area. This is incorrect. Clouds do form over volcanoes, as they form over pretty much anything else. This cloud over the vent is a COINCIDENCE, nothing more, nothing less. The same dangerous sort of speculation has occurred on other blogs before, namely the blog of a guy who calls himself "Dutchsinse", a sensationalist doomsayer. He incorrectly reported an eruption at the Pisgah Crater using the same erroneous methods. When he saw a cloud on NASA satellite images over the volcano, he assumed the cloud actually came from the volcano, which is impossible since it is a monogenetic cinder cone with no historical activity.

The publicity Dutchsinse got on the web actually prompted the USGS to issue a statement denying his claim, to which he actually chose to start a war of words with the professional government agency. This sort of speculation is damaging to the credibility of bloggers, and to scientists who are actually doing all the work. Just remember, there are two types of bloggers in regards to volcanoes: Those that know what they're talking about, like Jon Frimann, myself, or other enthusiasts, and then there are those that just want to generate hype to get more ad revenue, at the expense of your intelligence.

Keep it real, keep it scientific, and get the facts straight!

Strange Reports From Burma As Mud Volcanoes (Supposedly) Erupt

Ramree Island, Burma
12/9/2011

A bizarre report has surfaced on the web regarding erupting mud volcanoes in Burma. The report states that there was an earthquake in the area that apparently upset some mud volcanoes that lie on a fault that passes through the town of Kyaukphyu. I was able to identify the area they were referring to on Google Earth with coordinates  19°23'51.01"N,  93°35'30.62"E, and it does indeed to appear to be a mud volcano.

The report however has some interesting characteristics which I am doubtful of, for example the quote in the article that stated "Mud and small amounts of lava" were erupted. This area has no real history of magmatic volcanism, so I would be quite surprised if this was indeed true. Reports out of Burma, and other extremely poor nations are sometimes highly unreliable and full of anecdote. Last year there was a strange report that turned out to be false out of Africa, when an article surfaced about a Nigerian volcanic eruption in an area not known for previous volcanism.

Indeed this report was released in an attempt to get government aid to a town that felt forsaken by their government. So it's anyone's guess as to the properties of this 'eruption' in Burma, but given the satellite photos, I have no large reason to doubt that there are mud volcanoes that might be showing activity, but lava and magma "shooting 300 feet into the air" sounds a bit out of the realm of possibility given the geology of the area.

In any case, read the above article for yourself. I cannot immediately tell if this report is credible, or just sensationalist journalism, but it would be interesting if it turns out to be true. Another mud volcano in Trinidad and Tobago 'erupted' last week, spewing a minor amount of mud. This mud volcano first erupted in 1997, and was quiet ever since. Mud volcanoes are typically a mix of heated water, sometimes ash, gas, and typically have a strong sulphur smell, although they are not typically considered dangerous on a large scale. One mud volcano in Indonesia was created by man-made hydrofracturing (fracking) and has actually demolished the surrounding town, and has not stopped erupting since it started almost 10 years ago.

I will follow up on this story should any new info become available... but at this time, I am considering the source and the description of events to be quite dubious.