New earthquakes for island of El Hierro

The new earthquakes detected on the island of El Hierro since Sunday (17th March 2013) have so far been located in an area where there has previously not been any seismic activity. The new activity has been detected to the west of El Golfo opposite Pozo de La Salud. The National Geographic Institute (IGN) has recorded more than a hundred earthquakes, most with magnitudes above 2.0 on the Richter scale since the beginning of this new phase of magmatic process.

A spokesman for the National Seismic Network, Emilio Carreño said that the biggest earthquake detected had a magnitude of 3.1 degrees on the Richter scale and other above 3 degrees with “many felt by the population of the island.”

According to Mr. Carreño, who said yesterday that the epicenter of the earthquake was on the ground (not at sea) and to the northwest of the island. “At the moment the earthquakes have been detected at a depth of 15 kilometers” he added.

Finally, in terms of change in the location of the epicentre, Mr. Carreño said that it is normal for the epicentre to move the release of efforts from one place to another on the edge of the crust and recalled that the entire system is interconnected.

Graph from Sunday showing earthquakes starting:

* Archive image