T e n e r i f e ’ s f a v o u r i t e b r i t i s h w e e k ly n e w s p a p e r
El Hierro on yellow alert
Issue 723 30 September - 6 October 2011
GENUINE fears of a volcanic eruption on El Hierro were felt strongly yesterday (Thursday) as 53 people had been evacuated on Wednesday, following increased seismic activity there.
They were transferred from their homes in the town of Frontera to a school in Valverde, the island’s capital, on the advice of the Guardia Civil, as a Yellow Alert was sounded, yet they were allowed to return home yesterday. More than 150 tremors were recorded on Tuesday, with 79 of them measuring between 2 and 3.8 on the Richter scale. And the National Geographic Institute recorded a further 34 earthquakes between midnight and 6.30am yesterday, the strongest again measuring 3.8, which was felt all over the island. The earthquakes were centred on Frontera and were 14-18 kilometres below the surface. Police feared the tremors could cause landslides in that area. The last eruption on El Hierro - smallest of the Canary Islands - which has around 250 small volcanic craters, was in 1793 and lasted a month, but more than 8,000 tremors have been recorded there since 19th July this year. The last one to rock the Canaries was just 40 years ago, on La Palma. Schools on the 108 square-mile island, which is home to approximately 10,000 people, have been closed and a tunnel linking the two main towns - Frontera and Valverde - has been shut. The army has also been called in to prepare for a possible mass evacuation. However, Spanish news agency EFE said there was only a 15% “probability” of an imminent eruption and officials ruled out the need for a mass evacuation on Wednesday. Even so, the Emergency Military Unit (UME) was deployed to El Hierro the same day, as a precaution, to assist the local emergency services if necessary. Continued on page 8
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Volcano expert predicts an eruption may be possible within days, weeks or months