Evacuation of smallest Canary Island begins after earthquake 'swarm' Read more: htt

[crippen]

108 square mile island is home to 10,000 people
More than 8,000 tremors have been recorded on island in the last two months
Last eruption on El Hierro was in 1793 and lasted a month
Residents put on standby for emergency evacuation over fears of landslides
By TOM WORDEN
Last updated at 6:17 PM on 28th September 2011


A holiday island popular with Britons is preparing for a mass evacuation because of a possible volcanic eruption.
Experts have recorded 150 tremors on El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, since yesterday - raising fears of an imminent eruption.
Last night 53 people were ordered out of their homes over fears of landslides and the army has been called in to prepare for a possible evacuation.

El Hierro has been hit by more than 150 tremors in the last 24 hours

About to blow? Parts of the Canary Island of El Hierro have been evacuated over fears of a volcanic eruption
Schools on the tiny island, home to 10,000 people, have been closed and a tunnel linking the two main towns - Frontera and Valverde - has been shut.
Volcano expert Juan Carlos Carrecedo said: 'There is a ball of magma rising to the surface producing a series of ruptures which generate seismic activity.
'We don't know if that ball of magma will break through the crust and cause an eruption.'
But he warned an eruption was possible 'in days, weeks or months'.
The last volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands took place on the island of La Palma in 1971.

The last volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands took place on the island of La Palma in 1971

Evacuation: Schools on the tiny island have also been shut and the tunnel linking the two main towns - Frontera and Valverde - is closed



Readings: A seismologist records the seismic activity on the island. There are fears the tremors could cause landslides
El Hierro, which has an area of just 108 square miles, is popular with British tourists looking for quiet sunshine holidays away from the bustle of neighbouring islands like Tenerife and Lanzarote.
It is not known how many, if any, Britons are currently on the island.
More than 8,000 tremors have been registered on El Hierro since July 19, collectively known as an earthquake 'swarm'.
Only 15 of them have been strong enough for people on the island to notice, but yesterday an earthquake of 3.8 on the Richter scale was felt all over the island.
The last eruption on El Hierro, which has around 250 small volcanic craters, was in 1793 and lasted for a month.



Read more: Earthquake 'swarm' on Canary Island of El Hierro sparks fears of volcanic eruption | Mail Online

[Hampsha]

Same area...

The Most Dangerous Volcano in the World - La Palma | Suite101.com

A volcanic eruption on the Canary Island of La Palma could send a mega-tsunami across the Atlantic causing devastation to America's eastern coast.

In 2001 two geologists, Dr Simon Day and Dr Steven Ward, published a scientific report ("Cumbre Viejo - Potential collapse and tsunami at La Palma, Canary Islands" Geophysical Research Letters 28) which sent shock waves around the world and divided the scientific community.

The report outlined a scenario on the Canary Island of La Palma, near the coast of Africa, which showed that volcanic activity on the island could cause a piece of land the size of a small island to slide in the sea. The impact of this would create a 300 meter high mega-tsunami, which would devastate the other Canary Islands within 15 minutes, the coast of Africa within an hour, southern Europe in three hours and America after six hours. It would be potentially the greatest natural disaster the earth had experienced in modern times."

Some more vids on this at youtube.

[Bower]

This has not appeared in the news here n the UK (unless i missed it)
Could be a a well forecasted major event.

[The Bold Rodney]

This has not appeared in the news here n the UK (unless i missed it)

This has been discussed in the UK and European media (Internet,TV and Newspapers) and documentary's have been screened. Saying all that if it happens it's rumoured the Tsunami created would wipe out New York instantly.

Just hope they're (the greedy Manhattan bankers) all still glued to their trading screens when (if) it hits!

[crippen]

This has not appeared in the news here n the UK (unless i missed it)
Could be a a well forecasted major event.

See link in OP.

[harrybarracuda]

Canary Islands residents evacuated amid fears of seabed volcano eruption

People in port of La Restinga, on the island of El Hierro, affected after scientists report volcanic eruption three miles off coast

• Emergency military personnel arrive on the Canary Island of El Hierro to aid in the evacuation following the eruption. Photograph: Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images
  
  The regional government of the Canary Islands has begun evacuating the small town of La Restinga, on the island of El Hierro, and raised its earthquake warning level amid evidence that a volcano is erupting deep on the nearby seabed.
  Approximately 600 inhabitants of the fishing port on the island's south coast were being told to congregate at a local sports field for evacuation on Tuesday.
  Scientists have reported that a volcanic eruption is taking place about 5km (3.1 miles) off the coast at a depth of 600 (1,960ft) to 1,000 metres.
  The only visible evidence of the eruption is reported to be dead fish that have floated to the surface. The fish had probably been killed by gas escaping from the volcano, scientists said.
  After months of continuous earth tremors on the island, vulcanologists had said there was a reasonable chance of an eruption somewhere near or under El Hierro.
  That eruption seems to have started on Monday, pushing hot lava and gases up through the seabed.
  With the eruption deep down and several miles away under the sea, the danger to local people and tourists who travel to La Restinga for the diving was considered to be minimal – but authorities today decided to carry out their evacuation plans in case that changed.
  The decision was made "due to the possibility that the centre of the eruption might move closer to the coast," the Canary Islands government said in a statement.
  Regional government safety chief Juan Manuel Santana told reporters on Tuesday that raising the alert level from yellow to red – the second and third steps of a four-step system – was also a preventative measure.
  
  

[good2bhappy]

good documentary

[harrybarracuda]

Two new volcano eruptions in Canaries

• Enlarge PhotoRed Cross members help a neighbor of the small town of La Restinga to walk towards …
• Enlarge PhotoA brown slick at sea off the coast of the village of La Restinga on the Spanish Canary …

Two new volcanic eruptions were confirmed on Wednesday near Spain's El Hierro island in the Canaries, where 500 people spent another night outside their homes after being evacuated as a precautionary measure.
"I confirm the existence of two points of volcanic eruption at El Hierro," Laura Otero, a spokeswoman for the local authorities, told AFP, adding that there were dead fish and a strong odour of sulfur at both sites.
The head of emergency services in the Canaries, Juan Manuel Santana, said in a statement that "the two points are located at two nautical miles and 1.5 miles southwest of (the village of) La Restinga".
The first eruption occurred at a depth of 700 metres (2,300 feet) and the other at a depth of 200 metres (655 feet).
He said the eruptions "resulted in two stains on the sea surface where there are dead fish and a strong odour of sulfur."
Some 500 residents and tourists were evacuated from the village of La Restinga as a precautionary measure on Tuesday after a 4.3-magnitude quake the previous day, the first volcanic euption in the Canaries in 40 years.
Monday's eruption was detected five kilometres (three miles) from the island at a depth of between 500 and 1,200 metres (1,640 and 3,940 feet) beneath the sea.
Experts had said the eruption would not be felt on the island.
Most of the evacuees have found refuge with relatives or friends in other villages on the island. But dozens of others, mostly tourists, spent the night in a student dormitory and a local gym.
Pointing to "uncertainty over the coming days", authorities said in a statement that they were keeping Restinga on "red alert", while the rest of the island remained on yellow alert, one notch lower.
"It is recommended to exercise caution," said Paulino Rivero, head of the Canaries administration.
But he said people would be able to return to their homes under the protection of civil safety officials to retrieve medicines or clothes.
Rivero said scientists had noticed no significant changes since Tuesday afternoon.
El Hierro, which means iron in Spanish, is the smallest of Spain's Canary Islands, located in the Atlantic off the coast of Morocco.
Perched atop an ancient volcano, the island of Hierro has undergone some 10,000 tremors since July 19, the vast majority of them not felt by its 11,000 residents.
The last volcanic eruption on the Canary Islands was on nearby La Palma in 1971.