(Dec. 26) El Hierro Volcano activity report – Continued (mixed) upward deformation – New deformation data

2013-12-26 18:10 UTC
What we (maybe one time in the future) may expect at El Hierro, happened the preceding weeks and days in Japan when a Surtseyan submarine eruption surfaced and continued to erupt until Niijima and Nishino-shima made a connection on Christmas day. The eruption lasted for many weeks.

2013-12-26 12:07 UTCTo make the deformation graphs a bit easier to read for our readers, we have created a map showing the axis where the most lifting has been noticed until the latest incoming data. Most earthquakes did occur and continue to occur to the East and South-East of the HI08 GPS station

2013-12-26 11:00 UTCIGN has just released new Ultra Rapid deformation data showing a continuous lifting in some parts and a stagnation in other parts.





The island inflates further with 1.5 cm in both HI08 (El Pinar) and HI09 (La Restinga) which brings the strongest inflation area 7 cm higher than prior to the crisis.
HI02 and HI03 (Sabinosa – El Golfo area) are stagnating or even deflating a little.
HI01 and FRON are lifting also another 1.5 cm.
Will be followed …

Click on this image to see the details in full size

Click on this image to see the details in full size

2013-12-26 09:16 UTCStill only a few earthquakes since midnight, but this may change based on the latest data not yet included in the list.
Volcanic tremor (indicating magma movement, still deep below the island) has been recorded by many instruments on the island.
The Upwards deformation was also confirmed by the latest Involcan/Uni of Nagoya PINA GPS station. In order to reference the current deformation vs the deformations from earlier crisis, we have included the PINAInvolcan/Uni of Nagoya GPS data sheet (unfortunately the Pre-2012 data is not included). The increase we witness now can indeed be called “spectacular”.

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2013-12-25 22:58 UTC- A very interesting new episode in the current crisis. A calm seismic period but a continued deformation, both vertical and horizontal. In earlier crisis, once the seismic unrest stopped, also the deformation leveled or stagnated. No the lifting continues in most points as the latest IGN GPS stations are showing. All this means that this crisis is not over yet and that new seismicity is evident when the island is pushed upwards. The Upwards deformation data are really spectacular (U side of the graphs) – In only 3 days HI09 (La Restinga) lifted 6 cm! and HI08 (El Pinar) 5 cm. But not only the South-Eastern side of the island was lifted, but also most of the El Golfo area with an average of 4 cm.

Deformation as reported by IGN during the late afternoon of December 25 – Last dot is the Ultra Rapid last measurement

Deformation as reported by IGN during the late afternoon of December 25 – Last dot is the Ultra Rapid last measurement

2013-12-25 19:51 UTC - For passing by-ers who are looking only at the earthquake list, it looks like everything is over again. We are not convinced that this is the case. We are constantly looking for patterns, mainly because of the strong continuing deformation as reported this morning (by both IGN and Uni of Nagoya). The La Restinga seismograph is almost flat which explains also the only sporadic earthquakes on the IGN list. We keep you updated.

2013-12-25 13:31 UTC - No change in the Update 09:31 UTC situation