Rising from beneath the waves: A new Canary Island emerges as underwater volcano hits the surface
- Volcano off El Hierro is just 70metres away from the surface and is spewing magma 20metres into the sky
- Nearby town is evacuated and ships banned from travelling to the area as strong smell of sulphur fills the air
- Explosive plumes and jets have been spotted coming from the volcano for the last month
Magma off the Canary Island of El Hierro has been spewing 20 metres high as the sea boils with a smell of sulphur.
As it grows and gets closer to the surface, more and more debris such as stones start to shoot out of the volcano which, until now, has only shown its explosive power below the surface.
It is now just 70 metres from the surface and islanders are already trying to come up with a name for the new island. It is quite close to El Hierro and if it continues to erupt it could eventually meet up with the mainland.
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A new island emerges from the sea along the La Restinga's coast off the southern Spanish coast in the Canary Islands
The sea around the volcano is heating up and, at times, has reached as much as 35C
The volcanic activity out at sea has attracted people to the coast, waiting to see the birth of a new island
It's not known at this point whether Ryanair, famed for flying to out-of-town airports, plans on opening up a route to the new-born island.
Homes have been evacuated and roads closed on the southern-most Canary Island following a government-issued warning about a possible volcanic eruption while shipping has been banned in the area.
The southern tip of El Hierro was shaken by a 4.3-magnitude quake late on Saturday as the underwater volcano just off the coast started spewing. The island, which has 500 volcanic cones, has already experienced more than 10,000 tremors in the past four months.
Renewed fears of an eruption came as vast quantities of magma - the molten rock from just under the earth's crust - began bubbling into the sea off the port of La Restinga.
What's your name? Islanders are now debating what to call the new piece of land
Debris was thrown up two 60ft into the air from the area close to the Canary Islands which has had more than 10,000 tremors in four months
It looks like a new island has been formed, but actually this is just molten rock that is being spewed into the air by the exploding volcano
EXPLOSIVE FACTS ABOUT UNDERWATER VOLCANOES
You may be surprised to learn that 75 per cent of all the lava that erupts every year comes from undersea volcanoes.
The surrounding water immediately cools it and a crust forms known as ‘pillow lava’.
There are over 5,000 known submarine volcanoes, but some are extremely difficult to find, even with today’s technology.
This is because geologists find them by listening for the tell-tale boiling water using hydrophones, but at extreme depths the pressure is too high for water to boil.
The Canary Islands are all volcanic in origin, but are not unique in this respect – the Hawaiian islands are also volcanoes that built up over time and breached the surface.
In hundreds of thousands of years it’ll get a new island called Lo’ihi, which is slowly forming off the south-east coast.
Right now it’s around 3,000 feet beneath the surface, but it’s already been causing trouble, producing frequent earthquakes.
Witnesses said that explosive plumes and jets could be seen on the ocean surface from the underwater volcano which began erupting last month. Some of the material is being ejected as high as 60ft into the air.
The regional government of the Spanish Canary Island issued a 'yellow' volcanic eruption alert - the second on a four-level scale. La Restinga's 600 residents were evacuated last week after the volcanic activity began.
Now new evacuations have been called for people living along the southern end of the island. Authorities have also shut down access to La Restinga.
Ships have been ordered away from waters around the port and aircraft have been banned from flying over the island's southern tip. The regional government of the Canary Islands says scientists have detected airborne volcanic fragments called pyroclasts rising from the sea off La Restinga.
The government said it awaited scientific reports on the danger posed by pyroclasts, but a research vessel that was collecting samples there has been ordered to stop.
Fears of an eruption have been going since the end of July, when El Hierro experienced the first of what has become more than 10,000 tremors - collectively known as an earthquake 'swarm'.
Residents were evacuated from some areas at the end of September when volcanic activity increased to more than 150 tremors in 24 hours. The army was put on standby for a mass evacuation.
Volcano expert Juan Carlos Carrecedo said at the time: 'There is a ball of magma rising to the surface producing a series of ruptures which generate seismic activity.
'We don't know if that ball of magma will break through the crust and cause an eruption.'
But he warned an eruption was possible 'in days, weeks or months'. The last eruption on El Hierro was in 1793 and lasted for a month while the last one in the Canary Islands as a whole took place on the island of La Palma in 1971.
Threatening: A computer-generated image shows the underground volcano off the southern-most Canary Island
Danger: The dark brown magma off El Hierro, with the town of La Restinga visible on the coast. The town has been evacuated and ships have been banned from the area
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