Xenopumices from the 2011-2012 submarine eruption of El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain): Constraints on the plumbing system and magma ascent

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (17) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Meletlidis ◽  
A. Di Roberto ◽  
M. Pompilio ◽  
A. Bertagnini ◽  
I. Iribarren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Magma Ascent ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
Plumbing System ◽  
El Hierro

scholarly journals Floating stones off El Hierro, Canary Islands: xenoliths of pre-island sedimentary origin in the early products of the October 2011 eruption

Solid Earth ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. R. Troll ◽  
A. Klügel ◽  
M.-A. Longpré ◽  
S. Burchardt ◽  
F. M. Deegan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Silica Content ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
Plumbing System ◽  
Quartz Crystals ◽  
Crustal Recycling ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
High Silica ◽  
Thermal Overprint

Abstract. A submarine eruption started off the south coast of El Hierro, Canary Islands, on 10 October 2011 and continues at the time of this writing (February 2012). In the first days of the event, peculiar eruption products were found floating on the sea surface, drifting for long distances from the eruption site. These specimens, which have in the meantime been termed "restingolites" (after the close-by village of La Restinga), appeared as black volcanic "bombs" that exhibit cores of white and porous pumice-like material. Since their brief appearance, the nature and origin of these "floating stones" has been vigorously debated among researchers, with important implications for the interpretation of the hazard potential of the ongoing eruption. The "restingolites" have been proposed to be either (i) juvenile high-silica magma (e.g. rhyolite), (ii) remelted magmatic material (trachyte), (iii) altered volcanic rock, or (iv) reheated hyaloclastites or zeolite from the submarine slopes of El Hierro. Here, we provide evidence that supports yet a different conclusion. We have analysed the textures and compositions of representative "restingolites" and compared the results to previous work on similar rocks found in the Canary Islands. Based on their high-silica content, the lack of igneous trace element signatures, the presence of remnant quartz crystals, jasper fragments and carbonate as well as wollastonite (derived from thermal overprint of carbonate) and their relatively high oxygen isotope values, we conclude that "restingolites" are in fact xenoliths from pre-island sedimentary layers that were picked up and heated by the ascending magma, causing them to partially melt and vesiculate. As they are closely resembling pumice in appearance, but are xenolithic in origin, we refer to these rocks as "xeno-pumice". The El Hierro xeno-pumices hence represent messengers from depth that help us to understand the interaction between ascending magma and crustal lithologies beneath the Canary Islands as well as in similar Atlantic islands that rest on sediment-covered ocean crust (e.g. Cape Verdes, Azores). The occurrence of "restingolites" indicates that crustal recycling is a relevant process in ocean islands, too, but does not herald the arrival of potentially explosive high-silica magma in the active plumbing system beneath El Hierro.

scholarly journals Causes and mechanisms of the 2011-2012 El Hierro (Canary Islands) submarine eruption

2013 ◽  
Vol 118 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Martí ◽  
Virginie Pinel ◽  
Carmen López ◽  
Adelina Geyer ◽  
Rafael Abella ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
El Hierro

scholarly journals Monitoring the volcanic unrest of El Hierro (Canary Islands) before the onset of the 2011-2012 submarine eruption

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (13) ◽  
pp. n/a-n/a ◽  
Author(s):  
C. López ◽  
M. J. Blanco ◽  
R. Abella ◽  
B. Brenes ◽  
V. M. Cabrera Rodríguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
Volcanic Unrest ◽  
El Hierro

The 2011–2012 submarine eruption off El Hierro, Canary Islands: New lessons in oceanic island growth and volcanic crisis management

2015 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 168-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Carracedo ◽  
Valentin R. Troll ◽  
Kirsten Zaczek ◽  
Alejandro Rodríguez-González ◽  
Vicente Soler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crisis Management ◽  
Canary Islands ◽  
Oceanic Island ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
Island Growth ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
Volcanic Crisis Management

Petrological and geochemical Highlights in the floating fragments of the October 2011 submarine eruption offshore El Hierro (Canary Islands): Relevance of submarine hydrothermal processes

2015 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 41-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jose A. Rodriguez-Losada ◽  
Antonio Eff-Darwich ◽  
Luis E. Hernandez ◽  
Ronaldo Viñas ◽  
Nemesio Pérez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
Hydrothermal Processes

scholarly journals The Holocene volcanism of El Hierro, Canary Islands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Rodríguez-González ◽  
Meritxell Aulinas ◽  
Francisco José Perez-Torrado ◽  
Constantino Criado Hernández ◽  
Maria del Carmen Cabrera ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Geological Mapping ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
Volcanic Event ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
La Palma ◽  
Precise Knowledge ◽  
Petrology And Geochemistry ◽  
Volcanic Islands

<p>El Hierro is, together with La Palma, the youngest island of the Canarian Archipelago. Both islands are in the shield stage of their volcanic growth, which implies a high volcanic activity during the Holocene period. The submarine eruption occurred in October 2011 in the SSE rift of El Hierro evidenced the active volcanic character of the island. Even so, despite the numerous scientific works published following the submarine eruption (most of them centered to understand such volcanic event), there is still a lack of precise knowledge about the Holocene subaerial volcanism of this island. The LAJIAL Project focuses on solving this knowledge gap.</p><p>The Holocene subaerial volcanism of El Hierro generates fields of monogenetic volcanoes linked to the three systems of rifts present on the island. Its eruptive mechanisms are typically Strombolian although there are also phreato-Strombolian events. The most recent eruptions frequently form lava on coastal platforms, which are considered after the last glacial maximum (approx. 20 ka BP). The most developed coastal platforms in El Hierro are at the ends of the rifts and in the interior of the El Golfo depression. This geomorphological criterion shows that more than thirty subaerial eruptions have taken place in El Hierro since approx. 20 ka BP. In addition, there are many apparently recent volcanic edifices far from the coast.</p><p>The research of the most recent volcanism of the island, the last 11,700 years of the Holocene, covers a long enough period whereas it is close to the present day. Thus, this period is the best to model the eruptive processes that will allow us to evaluate the future scenarios of the eruptive dynamics in El Hierro. The Project LAJIAL combines methodologies of geological mapping, geomorphology, GIS, chronostratigraphy, paleomagnetism, petrology and geochemistry to solve the Holocene eruptive recurrence rate in El Hierro, and to constrain the rift model of intraplate ocean volcanic islands.</p><p>Financial support was provided by the Project LAJIAL (ref. PGC2018-101027-B-I00, MCIU/AEI/FEDER, EU). This study was carried out in the framework of the Research Consolidated Groups GEOVOL (Canary Islands Government, ULPGC) and GEOPAM (Generalitat de Catalunya, 2017 SGR 1494).</p>

Spatial-temporal variations of surface diffuse CO2 degassing at El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro A. Hernández ◽  
Christopher A. Skeldon ◽  
Jingwei Zhang ◽  
Fátima Rodríguez ◽  
Cecilia Amonte ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Graphical Analysis ◽  
Homogeneous Distribution ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
North East ◽  
The North ◽  
Total Data ◽  
Destructive Processes

<p>El Hierro (278 km<sup>2</sup>), the youngest, smallest and westernmost island of the Canarian archipelago, is a 5-km-high edifice constructed by rapid constructive and destructive processes in ~1.12 Ma, with a truncated trihedral shape and three convergent ridges of volcanic cones. It experienced a submarine eruption from 12 October, 2011 to 5 March 2012, off its southern coast that was the first one to be monitored from the beginning in the Canary Islands. As no visible emanations occur at the surface environment of El Hierro, diffuse degassing studies are a useful geochemical tool to monitor the volcanic activity in this volcanic island. Diffuse CO<sub>2</sub> emission surveys have been performed at El Hierro Island since 1998 in a yearly basis, with much higher frequency during the period 2011-2012. At each survey, about 600 sampling sites are selected to obtain a homogeneous distribution. Measurements of soil CO<sub>2</sub> efflux are performed in situ following the accumulation chamber method. During pre-eruptive and eruptive periods, the diffuse CO<sub>2</sub> emission released by the whole island experienced significant increases before the onset of the submarine eruption and the most energetic seismic events of the volcanic-seismic unrest (Melián et al., 2014. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 119, 6976–6991). The most recent diffuse CO<sub>2</sub> efflux survey was carried out in July 2019. Values ranged from non-detectable to 28.9 g m<sup>−2</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>. Statistical-graphical analysis of the data shows two different geochemical populations; Background (B) and Peak (P) represented by 97.5% and 0.5% of the total data, respectively, with geometric means of 1.2 and 23.6 g m<sup>−2</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>, respectively. Most of the area showed B values while the P values were mainly observed at the interception center of the three convergent ridges and the north-east of the island. To estimate the diffuse CO<sub>2</sub> emission for the 2019 survey, we ran about 100 sGs simulations. The estimated 2019 diffuse CO<sub>2</sub> output released to atmosphere by El Hierro was 214 ± 10 t d<sup>-1</sup>, value lower than the background average of CO<sub>2</sub> emission estimated on 412 t d<sup>-1</sup> and slightly higher than the background range of 181 t d<sup>-1</sup> (−1σ) and 930 t d<sup>-1</sup> (+1σ) estimated at El Hierro volcano during the quiescence period 1998-2010 (Melián et al., 2014, JGR). Monitoring the diffuse CO<sub>2</sub> emission has proven to be a very effective tool to detect early warning signals of volcanic unrest at El Hierro.</p>

scholarly journals Soil gas radon emissions and volcanic activity at El Hierro (Canary Islands): The 2011-2012 submarine eruption

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 432-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Germán D. Padilla ◽  
Pedro A. Hernández ◽  
Eleazar Padrón ◽  
José Barrancos ◽  
Nemesio M. Pérez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Volcanic Activity ◽  
Soil Gas ◽  
Submarine Eruption ◽  
El Hierro ◽  
Soil Gas Radon
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