3.8 Magnitude Quake in Clear Lake/Geysers California

A magnitude 3.8 quake hit Clear Lake today at around 4:30am north of the normal seismic swarm region. Typically, the Clear Lake geothermal prospect can cause up to 50 small quakes a day, many ranging from 1.0-4.0. 3.8 is a bit larger than the area usually sees, and this quake is different due to its location and size. The area where this quake occurred is at the SE shore of the lake, not near any geothermal drilling or activity. This is most likely a tectonic event and not magma movement, although the area is considered to be an active volcano.

Above image from Google Earth with real-time USGS layer added.

Waveforms of the quake from USGS website.

The Geysers Geothermal Field/Clear Lake area has had an ongoing quake swarm since geothermal power plants were installed on the mountain range south of the lake. This has been going on since the late 1990's. While information on this activity is hard to come by, and the science papers released mostly being from corporate scientists with interests to protect, it is anyone's guess what's going on in this area. The wave forms do appear to be tectonic from this quake (above), so it's probably not a cause for concern. As always though, I will keep my eyes peeled on this location to see if anything new develops (but I'm not going to lose any sleep over it).

Activity Strong Today At El Hierro

The Canary Islands volcano does not seem to want to quit. Despite reports around the web and other blogs that say "El Hierro Eruption Stops", it seems again that El Hierro is making fools out of those who try to predict this volcano. Today the activity is quite high, with more lava balloons (gas filled lava that floats on the surface of the water) visible day and night, and a very strong "jaccuzzi" area present during the afternoon at El Hierro (below).

Picture from Movistar/Telefonica webcam.

El Hierro has been in a sort of on-off-on-off-on pattern with its eruptions, probably due to structural adjustments and dome collapse underwater. Once magma pressure builds again, activity resumes. This is probably indicative of a large magma chamber beneath the island. My guess is that the volcano probably has plenty of life in it yet, and that we can't expect it to stop anytime soon.

Pictures posted on Earthquake-report.com from the local scientific expeditions show that there are now two vents active underneath the water. The main vent, lovingly referred to as "Bob", and a nameless vent closer to the shore, but much smaller. The dual jaccuzzis can be seen in the image above. 

The main vent is now a mere 30-50 meters below the sea surface, and if activity continues, we will most likely bare witness to a surtseyan eruption within a couple months. Just last month a similar eruption created a new island in the Jebel Zubair chain in Yemen. Since that area isn't closely watched, and is rather deserted, that eruption was a surprise only identified by local reports and satellites. Scientists did not witness the start of the eruption underwater, and thus only knew of the eruption once it breached the surface, so we have no way of knowing how long Jebel Zubair erupted for. 

We are fortunate with El Hierro to see the precursors to the eruption in the form of a vast amount of earthquakes, along with the underwater cone building phase, and hopefully the surtseyan island forming phase. This will have been a complete record of an eruption, and will no doubt be invaluable to science.

6.2 Mag Quake Strikes Chile Near Bio-Bio

A 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck today near Bio-Bio in Chile, off the coast. No tsunami warning was issued (at least according to the few reports I read). The quake was at a depth of 29.7KM, and was followed by a 4.9 aftershock. The town of Tome' was the hardest hit, with shaking in the area characterized as strong-very strong on the USGS scale. The quake was felt further inland.

Chile is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and resides entirely on the rim of the Pacific Ring of Fire, the tectonic plate boundary where the majority of Earth's active volcanoes are located.

Chile has seen some very strong quakes in recent years, with an 8.8, and 9.0 striking last year alone. The 9.0 quake did cause a tsunami, that resulted in only one fatality (a guy from my hometown no less!) where a man was taking pictures of the wave at his own risk, and got swept up the West Coast from California and ended up in Oregon. Some damage was caused by the tsunami in various ports where boats got knocked together, and a minor wave also 'hit' Hawaii, although this caused little damage as well.

There is no word yet on whether or not the current quake caused any damage or injuries. 

El Hierro Volcano Still Erupting

The eruption at El Hierro continues at a steady pace. Harmonic tremor has fluctuated during the past few weeks, with tremor picking up in the last couple of days following a supposed vent collapse (possibly two). Last night, viewers of the webcams reported seeing flaming lava balloons on the surface of the jacuzzi area, with sporadic increases and decreases in jacuzzi intensity.

As of this writing, tremor is picking up, which has become somewhat typical following vent collapse. This is a result of re-pressurization of the vent magma chamber, which will likely result in further underwater cone building and subsequent collapses, until the volcano either breaks the surface and enters a surtseyan eruptive phase, or the eruption ceases altogether.

El Hierro volcano has vexed bloggers, enthusiasts, and scientists alike, with frequent stops and starts to the eruption action. Some bloggers like John Frimann (Iceland Volcano And Earthquake Blog) and Earthquake-report.com (who currently has the best equipped coverage of the area, sans opinions) have previously reported the eruption to be over, which is obviously not the case.

As is sometimes a fact with long dormant volcanoes, eruptions can be long lived, or short in duration. The eruption at El Hierro was preceded my many thousands of small earthquakes, which resulted in a good picture of the girth of the magma chamber, which it turns out, is quite large. This is one of the least studied volcanoes in the Canary Islands, if not THE least studied. So most of the info about El Hierro is quite new.

The magma chamber is large, and has clearly made a channel to a massive magma source, probably deeper than scientists are currently able to measure without the aid of a massive seismic network, or the newly minted muon scanning technology. Judging from the earthquakes alone, in conjunction with depth, magnitude, location, etc, it seems this eruption probably has plenty of pressurized magma to feed activity for months to years.

In my opinion, this will be a very sustained and long eruption, possibly resulting in the creation of a new island. If the volcano ever does break the surface of the water and enter a land-building phase like the new island in Yemen (in the Jebel Zubair chain), the eruption will likely speed up with no water pressure to hold it back. A lack of water at the vents surface would allow the eruption to "blow its load" so-to-speak, resulting in probably a quicker release of magmatic gas pressure. This of course is only my theory.

In any case, the eruption continues unabated, and is beginning to develop a pattern of vigorous cone growth followed by periodic collapses and a subsequent increase in tremor and pressure. The lava balloons on the surface seem to indicate a very even flow of lava to the vent area, very consistent.

I will post more updates if anything interesting occurs. 

A Quick Post In Support Of The Internet

By now many people have probably realized that a lot of websites are "blacked out" today in protest of a bill called SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), which would hold accountable any website, company, host, etc for the use and/or distribution of copyrighted material such as pictures, sounds, and more. Obviously we'd all love to keep the Internet a free domain for creative thought, and keep it so information can be disseminated freely to the world. Sadly, some media companies see it differently.

The MPAA, Hollywood, record labels, and other organizations have lobbied congress with millions of dollars in order to have them craft a TRAVESTY of a bill that would basically end the Internet as we know it. And I'm not even being dramatic. The bill would change the way bloggers blog, how news organizations report, would trash our judicial system with thousands of infringement cases, and the lives of mostly innocent adults, teenagers, and kids put into jeopardy for something as simple as a re-tweet, or Facebook post.

To put it bluntly, SOPA must NEVER happen.

Currently the White House is saying that it will veto the bill, and Congress seems to have gotten the message that this is something the USA and it's citizens will not stand for. But the bill is still being 'kicked around the office' so-to-speak, and the danger of its passage is anything but over.

How can you help fight the bill? Visit Wikipedia.org and give them your ZIP code, they will point you to a petition that you can sign and send to your local and state representatives. Make your voice heard, keep the Internet free, and excersize your freedom to dissent!

As an Internet engineer and avid blogger, this issue is near and dear to my heart. The Internet is one hell of an invention, and the only thing I'd like to see in regards to changing it, is increasing the services it provides to the world, not the other way around. STOP SOPA, WRITE YOUR REP!