El Hierro Activity Strong Today, Volcanic Tremor Vigorous

The El Hierro Volcano has picked up activity this morning and into the afternoon with strong harmonic tremor, multiple recorded underwater explosions, and lots of steaming lava rocks floating to the surface. The tremor began to pick up before dawn at El Hierro, and continued throughout the day with one of the most vigorous displays of activity yet. This volcano is far from done erupting.

Below is today's tremor graph from IGN.

The obvious increase in volcanic tremor this time did coincide with surface activity. Even though the tremor is currently a bit lower than earlier, smoking lava stones and a very strong and colorful stain on the ocean surface can easily be seen on the live webcam.

If El Hierro can sustain this eruption for a couple more months, it is highly likely it will breach the surface and enter into a Surtsetyan, or island building phase. This would be characterized by a large increase in emissions and explosive activity, eventually (probably) resulting in a more Strombolian type eruption from the cone (at least this is what I gather will happen when the cone can get free of the water, given the type of ejecta making its way to the surface). With gassy lava like this, it will probably end up being quite a show.

It is time for those of you who gaze at the volcano to remain vigilant. I for one would be overjoyed to see the birth of this new island live on camera (of course I'd rather be there, but that costs lots of money!). Keep your eyes peeled!

Possible Dike Intrusion at Katla Volcano, Iceland

Seismographs are recording a large amount of small quakes beneath the Mýrdalsjökull glacier in Katla's caldera in the past 48 hours. Over 20 small quakes have so far hit a concentrated area, which usually indicates slow dike intrusion under the volcano. Katla, next door to the now infamous Eyjafjallajökull volcano which caused massive transportation disruptions in April of 2010, is far larger and has been known to erupt with much more fury than Eyjafjallajökull.

Katla may have had a minor eruption earlier in 2011, when a glacial outburst flood (jökullhlaup) came suddenly and destroyed a small bridge with debris in a lahar-like surge. This was considered by some to be a small eruption, possibly preceding future stronger activity.

While many Icelandic volcanologists have expected Katla to blow shortly after Eyjafjallajökull, it has yet to occur. This new intrusion could be the start of more activity, but it will likely be small. It could be Katla might just have a few small eruptions rather than a large one, but it's anyone's guess at this time.

                                           

Image from Icelandic Meteorological Office website showing current quake swarm at Katla.

Katla has not had a major eruption in quite some time. Some of Katla's previous eruptions have been record setting events that produced some of the largest amounts of tephra and basaltic lava flows that Iceland has ever witnessed (except for of course the famed eruption of the Laki fissure system, credited for worldwide famine and the straw that broke the camel's back for France preceding the revolution). While Katla's future is highly uncertain, the only certain thing that can be said about it is that it is active, it will erupt again, and probably soon.

Other than this, speculation is always useless with Icelandic volcanoes. The media like BBC and DailyMail will no doubt hype this up tot he point people are hysterical... while those of us who know better will sit back and wait for the show with the knowledge that this is probably going to be a non event.

After Two Day Break, El Hierro Roars Back To Life

The last two days at El Hierro saw a calm stain on the water with few if any smoking lava stones, low harmonic tremor, and very little else. That ended this morning, when tremor again picked up, more smoking stones could be seen on the surface and emissions bounced back. El Hierro is not done yet.

                                                                                    

Images from El Hierro Telefonica/Movistar cam.

Today's current tremor. note the large increase over the last couple of hours.

El Hierro has been doing this off and on again eruptive cycle for weeks now, if not months. This is probably related to vent collapse and re-pressurization, leading to sporadic bursts in activity. Likely this will keep going on for quite some time. Tremor is QUITE strong today, so if you have the opportunity, you should check out the cam and keep your eyes peeled for some cool activity.

Morning Activity At El Hierro Reveals Vigorous 2nd Vent

The activity at El Hierro Volcano has taken an interesting turn. The 2nd large vent to open up has created a strong jacuzzi area and emitted many smoking lava stones (SLS).Views on this morning's webcam revealed two very distinct 'jacuzzi' areas, with the Eastern vent emitting far more floating steamy lava rocks. These were numerous and frequent this morning.

The harmonic tremor (below) seemed to correspond with the activity.

The lava stones are shown below.
                                     

 The activity, for now, continues as it has now for months.

Possible Dike Intrusion at Golden Trout Creek

A minor earthquake swarm is ongoing south of the main peak of Golden Trout Creek volcanic field in CA, USA. The largest event so far has been a mag 2.9 tremblor (curiously with a depth of 0.0 KM), with aftershocks or other independent quakes registering from 1.1-2.3 magnitude. Due to the locations and magnitude of the quakes, this could be related to minor dike intrusion. If it is, there can be an expected die-off of indigenous trees in the area due to CO2/SO2 release similar to what happened at Mammoth Mountain in the 1990's.

This area does not produce frequent earthquakes.

The quakes have been recorded in a longitudinally linear fashion, with most occurring at or near the same depths, indicating a localized source, with the exception of the 2.9 tremblor at surface depth, which could be depth read error. This area is not highly known for much tectonic volcanism.

The Golden Trout Creek volcanic field is a Holocene volcanic center, listed on the GVP as an active volcano. While no historical eruptions have been recorded at Golden Trout Creek, the last eruption has been carbon dated to be around 5-10,000 years old, post dating glaciation at the site. In short, this volcano has erupted when humans were present on North America, and probably will again.

This current cycle will NOT likely result in any eruptive activity, however, as with all active, or slightly active Holocene volcanoes, there is always that possibility.

The Golden Trout Creek volcanic system is not near any large population centers in California. If it did erupt, it is likely that news would be slow to come out of that area, if at all. The area is known for producing about 5 different volcanic cinder cones, which are monogenetic (erupting only once) in nature. The last volcanic eruption produced a ~6km flow down a river gully.

The below picture is from Google Earth with the USGS overlay added, and the largest earthquake highlighted.