Posted on 06/27/2012 2:05:32 PM PDT by djf
While the unusually strong earthquake swarm under El Hierro Island continues, harmonic volcanic tremor has reappeared short time ago at about 16h10 UTC. The tremor, a low-frequency ground vibration, is thought to be caused by moving magma. It had been strong yesterday and correlated well with a southward propagation of earthquake locations, suggesting that magma at about 20 km depth flew from underneath the El Golfo area towards the EL Julan (south) coast, in a similar way as before the Oct 2011 eruption, but became blocked there, and did not reach the southern rift zone near La Restinga. After the cease of tremor in the afternoon, earthquakes still continued at high rate, marking a record figure with over 180 quakes larger than M2 yesterday alone, and more than 150 quakes larger than M1.5 so far today. In other words, pressure continued to cause wide-spread rock fracturing underground and cause small intrusions of fluids. Now, the re-appearance of tremor could mean that magma is moving again somewhere underneath the island. Where to and whether or not it might reach the surface and initiate a new eruption is difficult to know at the moment. It is essential to continue to monitor location and magnitude of earthquakes.
>>Is this the island that, if it collapses, we can kiss the east coast of the US goodbye?<<
Any chance we can direct it to Manhattan?
I was thinking more along the lines of up the Potomac. I suppose both would work...
BBC documentary here:
http://ascendingstarseed.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/mega-tsunami-wave-of-destruction-el-hierro/
It could produce a tsunami but I think the threat is overblown. The island is a tiny speck on the far side of the atlantic and I can’t see it producing a wave of more than a couple of feet on this side of the ocean.
Damaging and expensive yes, but I don’t believe its the catastrophic killer hyped on the disaster shows.
From a look at the quake activity using EARTHQUAKE 3D, it seems the magma is moving N / NE
1) This is a different Canary Island than the one with the hyped tsunami collapse threat.
2) Most scientists in the field do not buy the huge East coast tsunami threat from a collapse of La Palma. Bad documentaries do a poor job of presenting all views on the subject.
The one you’re thinking of is Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma.
Correct. Watching the video goes into more detail.
La Palma is the threat.
Can anyone tell me how many miles inland it might go?
Grammar, schmammar.
I’d have used spewed, but we know what he meant, came out with force. So the sentence was successful, if not necessarily awesome.
I don’t mean to sound nasty, but it would work like a hydraulic pump, not a pebble in the pond.
If the land slide is significant in size and kinetic energy, it would be horrible for the east coast.
Hey, Hey, Hey!
There are FReepers here.
The simulations I have seen show about the Western third of La Palma separating along an existing fault line and sliding into the Atlantic. It generates a huge Tsunami that pretty much destroys the Atlantic coastal US.
We’re still talking about a tiny amount of energy compared to the recent Japan quake and tsunami or the Indonesian one a few years ago. Plus it would be energy spread and dissapated over a huge area.
That is exactly where you are incorrect. This happened before. Hey have found evidence of large tsunami’s in the Carolina’s and Virginia.
The Indonesia tsunami was deep and far away. This would be closer to the surface, and relatively, not as far away.
>>Hey, Hey, Hey!
There are FReepers here.<<
With advance notice, of course!
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