The underwater volcano is located in the Canary Islands

Feb 15, 2012 07:38 GMT  ·  By
EO-1's ALI instrument sees the emissions plume caused by El Hierro eruption, in the Canary Islands
   EO-1's ALI instrument sees the emissions plume caused by El Hierro eruption, in the Canary Islands

The latest image of the El Hierro volcano, snapped from aboard the NASA Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite, is revealing the extent of the underwater eruption that began in the Canary Islands about four months ago.

This visible-light image was collected on February 10, with the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument aboard EO-1. Located near the village of La Restinga, the volcano is making it very difficult to fishermen to make a living in the area.

What I find interesting it that the tip of the underwater volcano has risen by 10 meters (30 feet) since mid-January. According to experts at the Instituto Oceanográfico Español, the mountain top is now just 120 meters (390 feet) beneath the wave, and steadily rising.

Estimates indicate that about 145 million cubic meters (512 million cubic feet) of new volcanic material have been deposited around the volcano since the eruption began.