Vigorous Steaming at El Hierro Volcano

Morning webcam stream shows a VERY strong steam area over the vent at El Hierro. This indicates the vent is getting near to the surface, or temperature has drastically increased near the surface of the water. The steaming is constant, and lively, with occasilanl lava rocks coming briefly to the surface before they sink back down. It is quite possible that the volcano will legitimately enter the Surtseyan phase soon enough.

                               

The column of steam near the surface this morning.

The eruption at El Hierro has been a bit erratic lately, occasionally looking like it's going to end, but the volcano has continuously been erupting for months now, with at least no visual signs lately of slowing down. Indeed, this vigorous steaming is about the most active the surface has ever been during the eruption, with the minor exceptions of a brief explosive event during the evening, and burning lava rocks occasionally visible at the ocean surface.

As of this writing, the column of steam coming from the water is quite persistent, and I see no reason why this eruption would end at this point. Time will tell. The eruption thus far has proceeded at a very slow pace. The island had plenty of warning via thousands of earthquakes, and the vent that opened up south of La Restinga has slowly but consistently grown, collapsed, and grown again. It seems the volcano is in no rush to breach the surface, but that could change at any time.

The steam so far seems to be a combination of floating steaming lava rocks, and very hot water. From what I saw this morning, I did not see a great many floating rocks, and the ones I did see didn't stick around too long. This looks to me like the water is incredibly hot, meaning that either the eruptive force down below is becoming strong enough to boil the water near the summit, or the summit is closer to the surface. Time will tell, and this new activity hasn't gone on long enough for INVOLCAN to take a close up look scientifically. Likely this will take some time. Updates will be posted tomorrow.

As of about 10:30am PST, the Movistar/Telefonica webcams appear to be offline. Earthquake-report.com is urging people to tweet:

@movistar_es ¡Las webcams de la erupción volcánica en El Hierro NO FUNCIONAN! Hay mucha actividad, por favor arreglarlas pronto. Gracias

which translates to: The El Hierro eruption webcams DO NOT WORK. There is a lot of activity, please fix them as soon as possible. Thank You

I would certainly "tweet" this message, if I were a Twitter user (nothing I have to say is 140 characters short!), so if anyone that reads this would like to use their tweet power to help get the cams back online, I'm sure all of us "Bob" fans would greatly appreciate it!

Yemeni Volcano Jebel Zubair Erupts (VIDEO)

John Seach Reports:

"Yemeni volcano Jebel Zubair has entered an eruptive phase (below)

Zubair Islands, Yemen

15.05 N, 42.18 E
summit elevation 191 m
Shield volcano

Jebel Zubair Volcano is located in the Red Sea, Yemen. Eruptions have formed the islands of Zubair, Centre Peak, Saba, and Haycock. 

Eruptions occurred at Saddle Island in the 19th century. Thee islands form the summit of a submarine rise. The volcanic cone is barren and rises 191 m above sea level.

2011 Eruption
A possible eruption occurred at Zubair volcano on 19th December 2011. Fishermen from Salif port city in the west of Yemen reported seeing an eruption with red lava rising to a height of 30 m. This was the first eruption the fisherman can recall from the area. Satellite images showed raised sulphur dioxide emissions close to the volcano on the following day"

From the Smithsonian GVP:
"The 5-km-long Jebel Zubair Island is the largest of a group of 10 small islands and submerged shoals that rise from a shallow platform in the Red Sea rift. The platform and eruptive vents forming the islands and shoals are oriented NNW-SSE, parallel to the rift. An early explosive phase was followed by a brief period of marine erosion, and then by renewed explosive activity accompanied by the extrusion of basaltic pahoehoe lava flows. This latest phase of activity occurred on the morphologically youngest islands of Zubair, Centre Peak, Saba, and Haycock. Historical explosive activity was reported from Saddle Island in the 19th century. Spatter cones and pyroclastic cones were erupted along fissures that form the low spine of Zubair Island."

(Now from me)

About two years ago now, another volcano on the same tectonic spread erupted, named Jebel al-Tair. That eruption was witnessed by a Coast Guard ship on patrol at the area. The island held a small Yemeni military contingent which was evacuated. At least two seven people died either swimming into the water in a panic to escape the lava, or from toxic gas. The new eruption is the island directly south of this volcano.

This could end up being a crustal trend in the area, although this is speculative. There are two other holocene volcanic islands to the SSE of Jebel al-Tair, and Jebel Zubair, which are morphologically fresh, although neither have a record of historical eruptions. The area is quite remote however, so it would not surprise me in the least if these islands had erupted behind our backs once or twice. Below is a screenshot from Google Earth of the Jebel Zubair volcanic island chain.
 

****UPDATE****

There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not this is Jebel Zubair, or Jebel al-Tair volcano. You can read about the confusion at Wired.com for yourself. Apparently, local reports place the eruption at Zubair, but satellite images are confusing. There does appear to be a steam/gas plume over Zubair, but satellite images show SO2 emissions over Al-Tair. It could even be that BOTH volcanoes may be showing signs of activity, which would not be entirely surprising. However, I have not known John Seach to post anything about an eruption unless he has confirmation somehow, so I honestly don't know who to believe at this point... interesting, nonetheless. 

Information from this part of Yemen and the Arabian rift is hard to come by. The area is not very populated, and the military outpost on Jebel al-Tair was destroyed in the last eruption, which was really one of the only "populated" (in quotes because 15 people does not a population make) island in the area. Reports will likely be few and far between, as far as Western Media.

*****UPDATE 1/5/12*****

Video footage via helicopter has been released!

Sierraville, CA Quake Swarm Returns

A quake swarm has again occurred (and is possibly ongoing) under Sierraville, CA at approximately the same depth as the previous quake swarm. The previous swarm was determined to be minor magma dike intrusion, which is also likely the case here. There is still no risk of a volcanic eruption, the intrusion is taking place at around 30-40KM beneath the surface, so it is still quite far.

The Sierraville swarm is an interesting one to watch. The area does not have any recent eruptive history, however hot springs and fumeroles can be found near the area.

The current continuation of the quake swarm occurred between December 29th, and January 3rd. Two quakes of mag 1.4 and 1.2 occurred today at a depth of 33KM.
                            

The Sierraville swarm has been felt by residents unaccustomed to frequent quakes. Given the fact that we know these quakes are volcanic intrusions, I'm sure the residents may be a bit nervous. But this swarm will likely never result in an eruption due to its depth. Indeed many magma dike intrusions never result in a surface eruption. It does not mean it's impossible, but I'd try your luck at the lottery first if I were a betting man.

Anyhow, something interesting to watch.

New Volcanic Monitoring Tech Under Development

Scientists are close to deploying en masse a new technology that could greatly improve our knowledge about the inner workings of volcanoes, possibly leading to a method in the future to determine how, when, and for how long an eruption might occur. Last night on PBS (here in the States), Nova produced an excellent show about volcanoes and what is being invented to monitor them properly. This is a two fold solution to a problem that has vexed mankind since our earliest days on the planet.

First, there are many technologies that can 'map' a volcanoes inner workings. The most common is seismic monitoring through low-velocity zones. What happens here is that deep earthquakes around a volcano (such as Yellowstone) are recorded by multiple instruments around the area. The data is timed so that computers can analyze exactly how fast, and at what portions, the waveforms slow down, or travel unimpeded through the crust. A slower wave form denotes molten, or semi-molten rock. This is called a low-velocity zone, and computers can now produce rather accurate images of underground magma chambers, which was recently done to Yellowstone.

But a far greater technology is in the works, and one that will not require thousands of seismic recorders, and is independent of earthquake data. Cosmic rays have been observed to produce particles called muons. Muons travel at near light speed, can easily travel through objects such as mountains, buildings... us. Scientists have figured out a way to place muon sensors around a volcanic summit to not only map the inner magma tube that feeds volcanic summits, but can tell where the magma is, at what pressure, and produce a very detailed 3D image of the inside 'guts' of a volcano.

This technology coupled with seismic extrapolation of underground magma reservoirs will GREATLY reduce inaccuracies in predicting or assessing eruption risks. This technology is now currently being used on Italy's Mount Vesuvius, which most scientists agree is currently the worlds most potentially lethal volcano, with a large population (in the millions) living around its base. Vesuvius is most famous for the 79AD eruption that destroyed the town of Pompeii, but it has had many many eruptions in the last 2000 years. It erupted during WWII, and again in the 1960's in recent history, but has since been oddly quiet.

The second volcano to be monitored is another potential killer. Mount Shasta on the West Coast of the US is a silent monster, looming over the Washington state skyline like an American Mt. Fuji, it is structurally weak, and has a record of historical activity. The main threat from this volcano is flank collapse that would result in landslides and lahars, however elevated thermal temperatures and chemicals in surrounding creeks suggest that the volcano is also slowly heating up. Nova pointed out that the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 was preceded by reports of discolored and high temperature river water weeks and months before the actual eruption. This has prompted the muon analyzing tech to be deployed around Shasta to get the real story on what's going on.

In any case, the technology for volcanic monitoring and prediction is improving by leaps and bounds as technology improves day by day. It is entirely possible that with these combinations of technology that getting caught off guard by a volcano erupting may soon be a thing of the past... at least for countries that can afford the investment. Areas that are remote, and inconsequential to humans, like the Aleutian Island volcanoes of Alaska, would probably be a low priority area for deploying this technology. However urban centers near these volcanoes would certainly benefit.

If you weren't able to see this Nova presentation last night, I'd see if you can find it online, or maybe order it from PBS. It was a great special, and brings a lot of food for thought.

El Hierro Erupting Glowing Lava Stones At Night

Video from Earthquake-Report.com shows glowing lava stones floating on the surface of the water during night time as activity again increases at El Hierro. Video shows a very obvious lava blob floating on the surface of the water, and eventually being extinguished by the ocean. Hopefully this activity will continue into the daytime so we can see some good video. You can watch the webcam here and hope to see a glimpse of the lava as it happens.

The El Hierro volcano continues to vex bloggers who want to be the first to report an end to the eruption. I will say this, the volcano has proven time and again that it is in no rush to finish what it started, and will probably be content to ooze lava from time to time. Sometimes, volcanoes that have been long dormant might have a longer than normal eruption, mostly due to the foundations on which they sit. An Island like El Hierro could conceivably, have a long term eruptive phase much like that of Hawaii's Kiluea volcano (which I suspect might be the case). Even though the eruption is a few months old now, it is still too early to tell when it might stop and give the residents of El Hierro a break.

The unfortunate thing for El Hierro is the location of the volcano (near one of its main port cities and tourist destinations), and the negative press its own government has given the eruption. Sensationalist news outlets and tabloids have effectively scared most of the normal tourists into cancelling whatever plans they had on the island, and damaged the local economy (not to mention the hit to fisherman who have seen their shoals of fish boiled by the underwater volcano in the early phase). It could have been very different, like it was for Iceland when Eyjafjallajokull erupted, drawing in thousands of tourists to the arctic isle. I guess the Spanish government probably wouldn't have a lot of experience with volcano-tourism.

In any case, stay tuned for more updates!