Undersea volcano erupts, stains seas

Earth from Space: Volcanic Canaries (ESA)
(El Hierro island located at the bottom left corner of the picture)

From NationalGeographic

Whitecaps churn in the Atlantic off West Africa as an underwater volcano erupts off Spain's Canary Islands (October 11th).

Satellite image by RapidEye

Since last week, the volcano has been spewing gas and fragments of smoking lava, staining the ocean surface green and brown, as seen above.

Desiree Martin / AFP / Getty Image

Spanish authorities have closed a port on Hierro island, ordered ships away from the island's village of La Restinga, and banned aircraft from flying over the island's southern tip, according to the AFP news service.

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Six hundred residents living at the port were evacuated.

Desiree Martin / AFP / Getty Image

Erupting lava and gas caused a turquoise stain that spread across the surface of the Atlantic Ocean off Hierro island, as seen in an October 10 satellite image.

Volcanic rock expelled by the volcano creates steam as it rises to the surface off the coast Gobierno DE Canarias / Handout / Reuters

The underwater volcano has been erupting at a depth of about 3,900 feet (1,200 meters).

Gelmert Finol / EPA

The Atlantic turns lime green as lava and gas billow from an underwater volcano off the coast of Hierro island on Monday 17th.

About 10,000 earthquakes have hit Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, since July 19-a sign of the volcano's rising magma, according to the European Pressphoto news agency.

Links :

• NASA :El Hierro submarine eruption