MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

“(AP) WAIMEA, Hawaii — A 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the north part of the Big Island on Wednesday, and the shaking was followed by a series of smaller temblors.

The first quake struck 13 miles southeast of Waimea at about 2 p.m., the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was centered at a depth of 11.7 miles. About two dozen smaller quakes ranging in magnitude from 1.7 to 3.6 followed within two hours.

No tsunami alert was issued and there were no immediate reports of damage. Residents across the island reported feeling light to moderate shaking.

‘When you feel a four-and-a-half at close range, it feels like a truck crashed into a building,’ said Weston Thelen, seismic network manager for Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.

The smaller quakes were normal sizes for an aftershock sequence, he said, adding that they can continue at low levels for several days.

The vast island — spread across more than 4,000-square miles — was formed by several volcanoes. The latest earthquakes caused no detectable changes in the continuing eruption of Kilauea volcano, according to the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.” Read more.

Earthquake Swarm at Mauna Kea in Hawaii – “Since early yesterday (Hawaii time), the volcano has experienced at least 38 earthquakes, some as large at M4.5, all centered NW of the main summit of Mauna Kea, all at depths between 14-19 km (see below), all below the crust under the Big Island. This is what a suspicious swarm looks like, where we have a strong focus of seismicity at depth under an active volcano – the question now is how persistent will this swarm be.” Read more.

“Experts are warning that an eruption could be imminent at an even more powerful Icelandic volcano than the one that paralysed air traffic last year.

Seismologists are nervously watching rumblings beneath Katla which could spew an ash cloud dwarfing the 2010 eruption that cost airlines two billion dollars (£1.27 billion) and drove home how vulnerable modern society is to the whims of nature.

Brooding over rugged moss-covered hills on Iceland’s southern edge, Katla is a much bigger beast than the nearby Eyjafjallajokul volcano, which blasted ash all over Europe for several weeks in an eruption that local scientist Pall Einarsson describes nonetheless as ‘small’.

Named after an evil troll, Katla has a larger magma chamber than Eyjafjallajokul’s.

Its last major eruption in 1918 continued more than a month, turning day into night, starving crops of sunlight and killing off some livestock.

The eruption melted some of the ice-sheet covering Katla, flooding surrounding farmlands with a torrent of water that some accounts have said measured as wide as the Amazon.

Now, clusters of small earthquakes are being detected around Katla, which means an eruption could be imminent, seismologists say. The earthquakes have been growing in strength, too.

After a long period of magnitude three tremors, a magnitude four quake was detected last week.

‘It is definitely showing signs of restlessness,’ said Mr Einarsson, a professor of geophysics at the University of Iceland.

Teams of seismologists and geologists at the university are tracking the spike in seismic activity and working with disaster officials to prepare communities near Katla like Vik, a small town of some 300 people that is flanked by black sand beaches.

Civil defence authorities have been holding regular meetings with scientists. Disaster officials have also drafted an evacuation plan and set aside temporary housing, but many fear they may have less than an hour to evacuate once the volcano erupts.

Iceland sits on a large volcanic hot spot in the Atlantic’s mid-oceanic ridge. Eruptions, common throughout Iceland’s history, are often triggered by seismic activity when the Earth’s plates move and magma from deep underground pushes its way to the surface.

The longer pressure builds up, the more catastrophic an eruption can be. Records show that Katla usually has a large eruption twice a century. Since its last eruption was almost exactly 93 years ago, it is long overdue for another, seismologists say.” Read more.

By Mark Dunphy – “Two new underwater volcanic eruptions have occurred off the south coast of El Hierro, the smallest and southernmost island in the Canary Islands.

Seismologists say two separate fissures have been identified less than 3.7 kilometres and 2.8 kilometres from La Restinga, a town on the southeast of the island.

Authorities have detected a sulphur odour in the area while dead fish have also been spotted floating on the surface of Las Calmas Sea.

The fresh eruptions occurred 48 hours after a subsea eruption, Spain’s first since an eruption on La Palma in 1971, occurred approximately 5 kilometres from La Restinga. The town’s 570 residents were subsequently evacuated as a precautionary measure in the event of volcanic activity moving closer to the island.

The eruptions take place amidst an unprecedented earthquake swarm in El Hierro. The number of earthquakes recorded since July 17, 2011 on El Hierro has now exceeded 10,300.

Hierro, a shield volcano, has had a single historic eruption from the Volcan de Lomo Negro vent in 1793. The eruption lasted approximately one month and produced lava flows.

The recent surge in the number and intensity of earthquakes prompted officials from Spain’s Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) and The Canary Islands Government to raise the alert level for the Hierro volcano to ‘Yellow’ late last month. The alert remained in place on Thursday, but the estimated 11,000 residents of El Hierro were being reassured not to be alarmed.

The majority of the earthquake activity shifted from El Golfo in the island’s northwest to beneath the Las Calmas Sea in the south earlier this month. Surface deformations exceeding 35mm have also been recorded on the island in recent weeks.

A Red Alert was issued by local authorities for the town of La Restinga, where local residents were evacuated from on Tuesday evening. Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and cabinet colleagues later attended an emergency briefing on the developing situation.” Read more.

“CANARY ISLANDS – An intensified sustained earthquake swarm is now taking place at the Canary Islands and it appears the magma is now on the move again bubbling closer to the surface and incinerating more rock in the process. Over the last 24 hours, we’ve seen the depths of the tremors rising up to within 11 km from a depth average of about 14.5 to 15 km. The number of seismic volcanic tremors has also doubled at El Hierro since Wednesday. On Wednesday, October 5, there were 79 recorded seismic events. On Thursday, there were 160 and on Friday, October 7th, there were 177.” Source.

“The island of El Hierro in the Spanish Canary Islands is bracing itself for a possible volcanic eruption.

Situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the west coast of Africa, the Canary Islands are all volcanic, but there has been no volcanic activity on El Hierro since 1793.

However, a series of small earthquakes have been registered by sensors in the past two months and a quake of grade 3 on the Richter Scale registered last Thursday have caused the threat of volcanic activity to be raised from green to yellow for the first time in recent history.

Saturday produced another stronger tremor of 3.4 on the Richter scale which was felt all over the island.

Speaking to the El Pais newspaper, volcanologist, Juan Carlos Carracedo admitted an eruption on El Hierro would not be a major surprise.

‘It is the youngest of the Canary Islands,’ he explained. ‘There is a ball of magma which is rising to the surface and it is stationed at the limit of the earth’s crust. At the moment we do not know if that ball of magna will break the crust and cause an eruption.’

Rather than having one large crater, the volcano on el Hierro consists of around 250 small craters.

‘Any eruption would form cones on the high zones of the island and lava flows which would flow to the sea, although they would do so at a speed that would be slow enough for the population to be evacuated. It is something that could happen in days, weeks or months,’ said Carracedo.” Read more.