Satellite Images Ongoing Submarine Volcano Eruption

Using the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on the NASA Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite, experts were recently able to capture a new image of the effects of a massive, underwater volcanic eruption. The event occurs above a tectonic hot spot, between the coasts of Spain and North Africa.

The eastern Atlantic Ocean houses the volcanic island of El Hierro, near which a large volcano located underneath the waves is releasing vast amounts of heat and materials into the waters above. The latter include minerals, sediments, volcanic rock and so on.

Geologist and blogger Erik Klimetti says that the eruption takes place at a depth between 50 and 100 meters (160 to 320 feet), and that water temperatures are about 10 degree Celsius higher at the location.

For five days at the end of October, the eruption was accompanied by no less than 540 seismic events, which were all recorded on the surface of the island by experts with the Instituto Geográfico Nacional.