Posted on 12/27/2013 10:23:47 AM PST by winoneforthegipper
M5.4 - 31km NW of Frontera, Spain 2013-12-27 17:46:06 UTC
(Excerpt) Read more at earthquake.usgs.gov ...
Residents are reporting a four minute rock and roll....I would think that the rock fall was the cause of at least a few minutes of that....lol
Wow, that’s gonna make for some cleanup!
If it blew up like Mount Saint Helens it would destroy the whole island..............
yes the Island is scarred heavily from previous eruptive episodes.
It would not take to much to have the rest meet the sea....
Yep reports are slide all over the island with road splits...which is very weird...the quake was quite a miles away.
That makes me think it has some sorta loading quotient to it.
Seems to deep for a volcanic quake too. I'm not an expert so please correct me if I am wrong. But I've read magma needs to be within a couple of miles of the surface before the danger of an eruption is acute.
I think the danger to the US East Coast has been over stated via giant land slide in the canary islands. Might be wrong on that too, but I do recall reading that also.
Agree and likely that magma will begin flowing again.
Santorini - Thera...............
The Canaries are ripe with Magma Chambers and most are that deep or a little deeper. So that’s not that unusual if it was magma intrusion into an old system. The quake is certainly interesting for sure.
The way El Heirro responded to it though is becoming even more interesting since the early swarm could have made things unstable I suspect we just can’t be sure.
Veto,
I’m in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Basically on the plateau between the two/double ridges that run up the east coast (in that little “foot” between NC, WV, & TN). Maybe that’s why I felt it so well? My house is where it’s mostly clay with a bit of top soil rather than on the rocky side of one of those mountains :)
Thanks for the link. Crazy that the only person injured was running out of their house and broke their arm!
I remember now that machogirl posted info on a 5.5 in the Central Atlantic, which seemed weird at the time. It first was reported as a 6. Now this one.
Yep, it moved highways 30 feet and took months to rebuild them, but no deaths, IIRC.
yeah well that one off of the bahamas is still on my radar in regards to study goes...lol
Some of you have likely seen this link or one like it. I’m amazed the amount of seismic activity going on ALL the time.
http://quakes.globalincidentmap.com/
Thanks for the info.
Yep familiar with that...
Again this quake is most likely volcanic hence why the importance.
Although earthquakes have largely ceased for the moment, the island experiences ongoing rapid inflation and harmonic tremor, both signs that an eruption could be imminent. The inflation in the SE part near El Pinar and La Restinga has reached almost 10 cm in just a few days by now. Instead of new earthquakes, harmonic tremor (steady low-frequency ground vibration) has appeared 2 days ago and since then been gradually increasing. Both observations, as well as some single long-period earthquakes in the past days, are indicators of magma moving into the system and pressurizing it.
This means that the scenario of a new eruption has become more and more likely. It is impossible to say whether and when a new eruption will occur, but it could happen quickly any time. It would probably begin with a series of stronger earthquakes to open up a conduit. Based on the inflation and earthquake patterns, the most likely area would be near the 2011 vent near La Restinga, perhaps even on land. In this case, La Restinga would be the village most at risk. The previously detected very high Radon gas emission values also suggest the presence of new magma and poses a health risk particularly in closed low-lying rooms of buildings especially in southern El Hierro.
http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/elhierro/news/40534/El-Hierro-volcano-Canary-Islands-Spain-strong-inflation-and-tremor-possible-precursors-to-a-new-erup.html
Btw, since we just crossed the winter solstice, watch for worldwide earthquake activity to start picking up again as the earth’s core gets tugged back to the northern quadrants. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.