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It is rare that the parentage of an island can be watched by humans in material - time , but that could be what is happening in Spain ’s Canary Islands .
occupier of La Restinga on the island of El Hierro were lately evacuated after weeks of quake and the grow threat of anerupting underwater volcanothat is making its presence known on the surface with an expanding , bubble plot of ground of grim junk .
This image was recently taken and shows the new volcano and its lava tongue that descends in the path of the old underwater valley.
The seismic bodily function off the coast alerted scientists to the fact that something interesting was occur under the sea . To get a better look , a squad of researchers from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography ( IEO ) went out on the H2O and were able to get a high - resolution picture of the volcano in less than two weeks .
The volcanic cone cell stretch out nearly 330 feet ( 100 measure ) above the seafloor , and is 2,300 feet ( 700 m ) spacious at its al-Qaida . Lava is presently seep out of a crater in the center that is about 390 feet ( 120 megabyte ) across-the-board . [ World ’s 5 Most Active Volcanoes ]
" This is the first time we ’re able to map [ a volcano ] so too soon , " say Juan Acosta , principal investigator with IEO who superintend the single-valued function . " This is important for understanding the volcanic process in the whole Canary Islands . "
This image was recently taken and shows the new volcano and its lava tongue that descends in the path of the old underwater valley.
The researchers used an advanced sensing element organization on the IEO ’s ship , the Ramon Margalef , to perform the mapping of the Davy Jones , a process known as bathymetry . The results , which had a resolution of about 16 to 33 foot ( 5 to 10 m ) , according to Acosta , were then compared to a bathymetry from 1998 to see how the volcano had changed the topography of the seabed .
The ship is also equipped with a robotic vas that has go nigher to the untried volcano , take moving-picture show and video and also measuring piss temperature and gas pedal present in the piss . The lava is constant for now , and the activity from the volcano is bringing gases and volcanic ash to the open , sully the urine above the new vent .
Although this is probable the same process that form El Hierro and the rest period of the Canary Islands , it is out of the question to say if this eruption will ultimately create a new landmass , or when . Acosta tell OurAmazingPlanet it could continue to erupt for a workweek , a calendar month or a year — no one know . For now , the retinal cone is still about 650 feet ( 200 molarity ) out from breaking throughthe ocean ’s surface .
This image was taken in 1998 from within the Spanish Exclusive Economic Zone in the area of El Hierro Island. The second has been taken now and shows the new volcano and its lava tongue that descends in the path of the old underwater valley.
resident physician in nearby villages are being evacuated for safety due to the constant barrage of small earthquake and the increasing threat of the vent . The accelerator pedal coming from the vent , such as S , are turning the water acidulous and small volcanic fragments have been launch into the ambiance . But research worker are staying as long as they can to amass as much data as possible on the emerging vent .
" It is spectacular to see how what was once an submerged vale is now a volcanic conoid , " Acosta said .
This storey was provided byOurAmazingPlanet , a sister land site to LiveScience .
The Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite acquired this natural-color image of El Hierro and a plume of volcanic material in the surrounding waters on Nov. 2, 2011.
