Two years
after a new underwater volcano appeared offshore of El Hierro in the Canary
Islands, earthquake swarms and a sudden change in height suggest a new eruption
is brewing near the island's villages, officials announced today (Dec. 27).
After the
announcement, one of the largest temblors ever recorded at the volcanic island,
a magnitude-5.1 earthquake, struck offshore of El Hierro at 12:46 p.m. ET (5:46
p.m. local time) today, the National Geographic Institute reported. Residents
on the island reported strong shaking, and the quake was felt throughout the
Canary Islands, according to news reports. The earthquake's epicenter was 9
miles (15 kilometers) deep.
Before the
earthquake struck early this afternoon, the island's volcano monitoring agency,
Pelvolca, had raised the volcanic eruption risk for El
Hierro to "yellow." This warning means that activity is
increasing at the volcano, but no eruption is imminent. A similar burst of
activity prompted a yellow warning in June 2012, but the volcano soon quieted
down.
Parts of El
Hierro have swelled nearly 3 inches (7 centimeters) in the past week, with the
growth centered between El Pinar and La Restinga, according to Involcan, the
Volcanological Institute of the Canaries.
More than
550 earthquakes rattled the island between Monday and Wednesday, also centered
on La Restinga. About 30 of the earthquakes were greater than magnitude 3,
Involcan said. The earthquakes are triggered by magma rising underground,
fracturing rocks and swelling the surface as the hot rock reaches upward.
"The earthquake swarm corresponds to a new magmatic intrusion,"
Involcan said this morning in a statement.
Today's
preliminary magnitude-5.1 earthquake was on the opposite side of the island
from the ongoing swarm.
El Hierro
was the site of a spectacular underwater volcanic eruption in
2011, which severely affected island fisheries and forced islanders to
evacuate.
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