El Hierro: volcanic disruption

A new island is being born off El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary islands. Although I'm a geologist, of sorts, I don't know much about volcanoes, but I think a few facts and figures are called for here. It started back in July as an earthquake swarm, with 720 earthquakes measured in one week, of magnitude 1 to 3, at depths of 5 to 15 km. Then around 10 October an undersea eruption began, a few kilometres off the south coast of El Hierro and about 450 m below the sea surface. Since then it's been busy volcanoing away, making new rock and building up and up towards that Canaries sunshine. As of this weekend, it's thought to be about 70 m below sea level, and still rising. It's so close now that the water immediately above the volcanic vents is bubbling away like a jacuzzi, the sea around them is stained brown from volcanic debris, and earthquakes are continuing - the biggest was magnitude 4.3, last Saturday.

The power and sheer force of nature of a volcano are captivating: this is the godlike creation of new land by Vulcan! (who is of course my favourite Paolozzi sculpture - possibly even more now I can sit right at his feet to have coffee and cake in the Dean Gallery cafe). There are some brilliant video clips out there of the water boiling at El Hierro (although watch out for the filmmaker's idea of properly dramatic accompanying music...), or this one that shows the debris slick in the water. It's pretty awe inspiring to be faced with something we have no control of, when we spend so much time creating little worlds we think we're in charge of.

But of course the flipside is...that we can't make it go away when it starts to mess up our lives. The inhabitants of the nearest town, the fishing village of La Restinga, have already been evacuated as a precaution because of earthquakes and possible toxic gases. And the volcano is already throwing pyroclastic rocks and ash into the air, even when it's erupting 70 m below the sea surface. Oh yes, ash. We know what volcanic ash does. And that's the point, of course. I'm not just interested in El Hierro because it's hot stuff and looks good in a jacuzzi. It's all about the little world I try to take control of. J and I are meant to be going on holiday in two weeks time on the island next door, and selfishly I don't want my holiday cancelled because of an ash cloud (and I do want the La Restingans to get home and back to fishing and taking tourists scuba diving again). So, I'm probably going to be watching this webcam quite a lot over the next week or so (if it works), and keeping my fingers firmly crossed that this volcano slows down and doesn't break the sea surface for a while yet, if ever.

At the feet of Paolozzi's Vulcan