El Hierro (The Canary Islands) Earthquake Count Reaches 8850 


The number of earthquakes recorded since July 17 on El Hierro, the smallest of The Canary Islands (Spain), exceeded 8,850 on Saturday. The number of earthquakes felt by the local population has reached 55. The strongest of the tremors, which have been recorded at depths between 10km and 15km, measured 3.8 magnitude on the Richter Scale.
The surge in the number and intensity of earthquakes in the past week has prompted officials from the Instituto Geografico Nacional and The Canary Islands Government to raise the alert level for the Hierro volcano to ‘Yellow’, the highest alert status since the unprecedented earthquake swarm commenced in mid-July.
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.
Spain’s national seismological agency warned the local population to be prepared for any possible future increase in volcanic activity. The agency noted, however, that the majority of earthquakes recorded during recent days have been centred to the south of the island in Las Calmas Sea. Previous to this, the vast majority of the tremors were recorded in the northwest of the 278.5-square-kilometre island at El Golfo. Over 150 earthquakes were recorded on the smallest of the Canary Islands during Tuesday prompting officials to evacuate some local residents, shut El Hierro’s main tunnel, and close local schools. An imminent eruption is said to be unlikely.