Underwater Volcano in Spain

By ⋅ December 2, 2011 ⋅ Post a comment
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Volcan de La Restinga near El Hierra (Photo: Guardia Civil)

Volcan de La Restinga near El Hierra (Photo: Guardia Civil)


The Geo Quiz takes us to a chain of islands in the Atlantic. The Canary Islands lie of the off the west coast of Africa.

They’ve been a popular way-station for many centuries. Today, they are a part of Spain, and a big tourist destination.

People go for the warmth, the beaches, to check out the volcanos. Most of them are dormant.

The largest of the seven islands is called Tenerife but we’re looking for the name of a different Canary island. The smallest and southern-most island.

It’s also the one where an underwater volcano is erupting offshore – right now!


The answer is El Hierro, where an underwater volcano is currently erupting three miles offshore but it’s close enough to be disrupting the El Hierro way of life. Anchor Lisa Mullins finds out more from volcanologist Jo Gottsmann (University of Bristol, UK) and journalist Barbara Belt who’s on the nearby island of Tenerife.

Discussion

14 comments for “Underwater Volcano in Spain”

  • Harriet Brown

    the proper pronunciation is Can ary with the accent on the first syllable – the basis is from the latin word for  canine. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Insula Canaria, meaning “Island of the Dogs”, a name applied originally only to Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained “vast multitudes of dogs of very large size”.[17] from wikipedia

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=502827668 Ken Tarantella Thompson Marche

      As a Spaniard, I can attest that while the etymologically correct stress might be on the first syllable, if you were to say that in Spain, you would get some very funny looks indeed. The stress is commonly on the second syllable. I have never heard anyone pronounce it any other way, regardless of the origin of the name.

  • Harriet Brown

    the proper pronunciation is Can ary with the accent on the first syllable – the basis is from the latin word for  canine. The name Islas Canarias is likely derived from the Latin name Insula Canaria, meaning “Island of the Dogs”, a name applied originally only to Gran Canaria. According to the historian Pliny the Elder, the Mauretanian king Juba II named the island Canaria because it contained “vast multitudes of dogs of very large size”.[17] from wikipedia

  • Anonymous

    Never mind the etymology of the name of the islands.
    As near as I can tell, this renewed volcanic activity is just about 80-100 miles south of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the island of La Palma.  I don’t like anything seismic in that area – if you don’t know why, ‘google’ for “La Palma Tsunami”, especially if you live on the East Coast of the U.S., below about 200 ft elevation and within 5-10 miles of the coastline.

  • Anonymous

    PRI should have begun covering El Hierro on July 17th, 2011, when cluster quakes began in earnest: Over 11,000 quakes occurred on El Hierro from July 17th to December 3rd, releasing nearly 0.78 kilotons of TNT of seismic energy into the island.  El Hierro has a history of massive landslides with the most recent listed as 13,000 years ago on the northern El Golfo Bay area – which is currently receiving the sharpest earthquakes from 20 km below – at the boundary where the African plate rides up over the Atlantic plate.  Currently, the volcano has  reached the end of its 3rd eruption cycle – with each cycle running a period of 7 to 9 weeks.  Volcanic vents, plural, to the south of El Hierro (not a new undersea volcano) are percolating pent up volcanic gases and steam with occasional lighter-than-water pumice lava ejected to the water surface, and harmonic tremors are increasing – which suggests magma pressure is generating standing waves in the magma pipe traversing from the north shore of the island up to the south shore – standing waves as a result of magma tube collapses due to all of the shaking.  The harmonic tremor can be heard all over the island – but is not a health risk – except for light sleepers and sound-sensitive pets.  Air quality in the southern village of La Restinga is also very much improved from 3-weeks ago – when the town was evacuated due to high concentrations of volcanic CO2 and SO2 emitted by the underwater volcanic vents.  For holiday travel, El Hierro will be a powerful experience for curious tourists, and should remain relatively safe through the next few weeks, aside from sharp, felt, earthquakes  on the El Golfo Bay shore northwest from the village of Frontera.  Ocean vessels are still banned from the southern shore of the island where 3 research vessels are currently operating at the direction of Spain’s National Geographic Institute.  South shore fishing is still banned.  Heavily discounted tourist packages are being offered – so check with your local tourist agency before booking vacation travel to visit El Hierro.  It could be a chance in a lifetime to catch the Big One as it launches a mega tsunami at the United States Atlantic Coast, where there is no national Atlantic Coast Tsunami Warning System because of idiocy in Washington, DC.

    • Anonymous

      A bit more sense in the article by rboblee, and as a studier of volcanic activity and demography in the Canaries, I can vouch for all of this article.  The so called WRITER, Mr Skirvin, needs to get a life and learn to write properly before publishing such utter drivel.  All he’s really doing is exposing his own lack of knowledge of the area.  Oh! By the way, I would seriously like to see anyone ride a tsunami wave when it hits shore.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Skirvin/100002016428182 Joshua Skirvin

    AS A RESEARCHER AND WRITER IT STRIKES ME , THAT THEY DON’T TALK ABOUT THE TWO MAIN PROBLEMS THERE,CAUSE THERE TRYING TO BRING TOURIST BACK. THE FIRST PROBLEM IS THEY JUST IGNORE THE GREEN SLIME,SAYING ITS FROM THE VOLCANO.AND THAT ITS KILLING FISH. ITS KILLING MUCH MORE THAN FISH.ITS RADIOACTIVE WASTE FROM 150 TONS OF NUKE WASTE BURIED IN BARRELS OVER 45 YRS AGO,ON TOP OF THE VOLCANO THAT IS NOW ERUPTING. THIS NUKE WASTE IS ONLY ONE OF OVER A HUNDRED SITES ALL OVER THE WORLD BURIED IN THE OCEAN. THE BARRELS WERE ONLY MEANT TO LAST 50YRS. THIS WILL KILL THE OCEAN AND MANKIND WORLD WIDE! 

    THE SECOND PROBLEM, WHY THEY SHOULD NOT BRING TOURIST IS THE MORE THAN LIKELY EVENT THAT A MAJOR LANDSLIDE OR TWO OF THEM COULD HAPPEN ANY MOMENT THAT WILL CAUSE ONE OR MORE SUPER MEGA TSUNAMI’S NOT ONLY WIPING OUT THE CANARY ISLANDS BUT ALSO MILLIONS OF LIVES ON THE COAST OF AFRICA,EUROPE AND ALL OF THE AMERICAS.IT WILL BE GOOD SURFING. THIS IS MOST LIKELY TO HAPPEN IN THE NEXT YR AS THE GALACTIC ALIGNMENT OF PLANETS TAKE PLACE. READ MY E-BOOK ON THIS ;2012 NEW EARTH SURVIVAL.COM

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1499673793 Dan Pratt

      Moron.

  • Anonymous

    Re nuclear waste – what arrant nonsense! Even our own stupid government wouldn’t bury waste on top of a volcano, and everyone knows that El Hierro is the youngest of the Canary Islands, and that it is in a volcanic hotspot. Where did these “facts” come from? And surely the islanders have enough to worry about without alarmist comments like this?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Bramwell/530421610 Alex Bramwell

    There is no nuclear waste and no danger of a landslide. El Hierro depends on Scuba divers for much of its tourism so the eruption has seriously damaged the economy. The volcano is also unlikely to reach the surface as new magma seems to be flowing into deeper water. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Bramwell/530421610 Alex Bramwell

    There is also no danger of a mega tsunami or landslide. See this blog post for info on that silly story:

    http://alexbramwell.blogspot.com/2011/11/could-el-hierro-volcanic-eruption-end.html

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Bramwell/530421610 Alex Bramwell

    There is also no danger of a mega tsunami or landslide. See this blog post for info on that silly story:

    http://alexbramwell.blogspot.com/2011/11/could-el-hierro-volcanic-eruption-end.html

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Bramwell/530421610 Alex Bramwell

    There is also no danger of a mega tsunami or landslide. See this blog post for info on that silly story:

    http://alexbramwell.blogspot.com/2011/11/could-el-hierro-volcanic-eruption-end.html

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Bramwell/530421610 Alex Bramwell

    Again, view my blog post on the subject, listed above. There is no connection between El Hierro and La Palma, and the Cumbre Vieja story has been wildly exaggerated in the first place.