Russ Steele
Volcanos played a role in increasing the human and agriculture misery during previous Grand Minimums, and that is why we continue to follow volcanic eruptions. Wired takes a look at some of the most recent erupting volcanos, starting with a nice view of the Canary Islands which has been in the news with residents and tourists evacuated from around El Hierro (bottom left in photo)
On Tuesday, authorities ordered the evacuation in the municipality of La Frontera to protect people living on the slopes of the volcano “for possible risk of falling rocks.”
“We expect an imminent eruption,” said the head of the council that ordered the evacuation on the Spanish island of 11,000 inhabitants.
In total, 53 people left their homes. Most were able to find shelter with relatives but 15 others, including several tourists were relocated in a dorm.
Check out the other erupting volcano pictures HERE.
John Seach at Volcano Live had this insight to El Hierro’s history:
Hierro Volcano, Canary Islands
Earthquakes continue at Hierro volcano in the Canary Islands. Since July 2011 over 8000 small earthquakes have been recorded at the volcano. Yesterday an earthquake of magnitude 3.5 occurred. Deformation has increased significantly at the volcano in the past week. On 23rd September 2011 the alert level was raised to YELLOW. Some residents have been evacuated from near the volcano. Earthquakes are occurring in the northwest of the island at the location of a landslide that created a 100 metre high tsunami about 50,000 years ago. A major debris avalanche occurred on the northern flank of Hierro Island, dated about 13,000 years ago. It had a width of 15 km and a scarp height of 1000 m. The landslide deposited 150-180 cubic km of debris on the seafloor down to a depth of 3000 m.
A huge landslide would produce tsunami which could reach the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. Stay Tuned!
The Next Grand Minimum 