Volcanoes Erupt Around Canary Islands, Spawn Earthquakes, Evacuations

ForexTV NewsDesk   |  October 12 2011 3:01 EDT

ForexTV.com (New York) by staff Reporter

The  government of the Canary Islands has begun evacuating the small town of La Restinga, on the island of El Hierro, and raised its earthquake warning level amid signs that a volcano is erupting deep on the nearby seabed.

Scientists have reported that a volcanic eruption is taking place about 5km (3.1 miles) off the coast at a depth of 600 (1,960ft) to 1,000 metres.

Hierro, with 11,000 residents, has been on alert level 2 in a scale of 4 in recent weeks for fear of an eruption, but officials insist an eruption is not likely to be major.

The Canary Islands lie off the coast of northwest African and were formed by volcanic activity. Hierro has some 500 volcanoes.

The only visible evidence of the eruption is reported to be dead fish that have floated to the surface. The fish had probably been killed by gas escaping from the volcano, scientists said.

After months of continuous earth tremors on the island, vulcanologists had said there was a reasonable chance of an eruption somewhere near or under El Hierro.  Since Friday morning, there have been more than two dozen earthquakes exceeding 3.0 on the Richter Scale with epicentres both North and South of the NW Ridge and depths between 10 and 15 km have been recorded.  The strongest of the tremors measured 4.3 magnitude on the Richter Scale, many times stronger than other earthquakes recorded on the island since mid-July. It was recorded on Saturday night at a depth of 12 km. The quake produced small rockslides but no injuries were reported.

Forex research by ForexTV.com