Scientists are preparing for another possible eruption on the island of El Hierro

 

 Scientists are preparing for another possible eruption on the island of El Hierro. laopinion.es

 PEDRO GUERRA

"Let no one think that this is stopped." Maria Jose Blanco, the director of the National Geographic Institute (IGN) and shuffles it: "The process is ongoing and the scene of an eruption takes shape in the north." Although accompanied by a dead calm day yesterday in El Hierro, all indications are measured in a volcanic eruption suggest that the island could produce a new eruptive process is different from the course at La Restinga (south ), which could occur in the north, in Frontera. Meanwhile, on the night of Thursday to Friday on the island felt a tremor of 4.6 magnitude on the Richter scale, the strongest since the beginning of the seismic crisis.

Following an extension in time of earthquakes in the north of the island have also increased in intensity gradually and still expected to exceed 4.6 degrees on the Richter scale, the theory of tectonic realignment fruit eruption that occurs in the south is almost discarded and scientists prepare for a new eruption in the most densely populated of the island, Frontera, with more than four thousand inhabitants.

 There is plenty of magma deep in El Hierro enough to think that the volcano looking for a way out, too, for a place other than La Restinga. If at first it was thought that under the crust would be about fifty million cubic meters of magma, new calculations suggest that underneath El Hierro can be up to a cubic kilometer of magma, that is, one billion cubic meters, two different processes that feed placed horizontally, one at a depth of between 20 and 25 km and another at a height of 10 to 15 kilometers. The most likely theory is now that they are independent, but may join at some point. Even recharging magmatic material from the depths could generate an eruption last considerably over time, can that for over a year.

CO2 levels in the building are very large . . Last week technicians of the volcanological Institute of the Canaries (Involcan) said the emissions were 1,200 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per day, a figure 3.5 times higher than normal on the island, the latest data collected on the day on Wednesday threw a rate higher than the 1,400 tons per day. Above 900 is already considered an abnormal figure.

 In Frontera there are also earthquakes, although decreased slightly in intensity, foretell that magma is moving strongly into the depths. Yesterday, the largest magnitude occurred at 18.31 pm, with 3.5 on the Richter scale and was felt by the entire population of the island. Only between six and seven o'clock yesterday afternoon, coinciding with a significant increase in the tremor signal, in Frontera were 13 different earthquakes.

In the south, where the eruption is located in the Sea of Calms, after analysis by Involcan, the emission shows a downward trend compared to Sunday. If Sunday in eruptive zone, La Restinga, CO2 yielded a rate of 54,160 tonnes per day, on Monday the index fell to 15,446 tons per day and up to 12,718 on Tuesday. This rate is obviously well above the ground is clear, because the emission is measured in an eruptive mouth already open, while on the island building at the moment, no eruptive mouth is open. The same happened with hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which over the last few days showed a downward trend.

The surface water pH has also changed, and has gone from a rate of 7.97 to 5.45 surface to five feet deep. "This decrease of three units of PH is that the media is supporting an acid concentration of a hundred thousand times higher than normal."

All indications are on the table of volcanologists working in El Hierro. Now if only the volcano will decide to leave.