Volcano at El Hierro erupting, below the surface at 5 km from the coast

Yesterday, monday october 10 2011, at 22:00 it was officially confirmed: after months of continuous earthquakes, a volcano is erupting at five kilometers from the coast of El Hierro, at a depth of 1000 meters. The nearest place on El Hierro is called 'La Restinga'.

On El Hierro, the most western island of the Canary Islands, peace has returned. The earth has stopped deforming, so the main tunnel connecting both halves of the island has been reopened and people who had been evacuated have returned to their houses.

Scientists call the current situation the 'best possible scenario'.

Yesterday reports arrived of owners of different boats that an eruption was taking place near the coastline. The sea behaved strangely and a lot of dead fish were spotted. But it's not easy to confirm an eruption at 1000 meters depth, so it took a few hours for seismologists and volcanologists to confirm the eruption.

Today is an important day: if all goes well, the rupture doesn't 'move' towards land and it will continue to poor out lava at the same spot, which will release a lot of tension which has been causing all the tremors since July 19 this year.

(As you can see at the picture above: nothing spectacular is visible to the eye (yet) at the spot where the eruption is taking place.)

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