Canary Islands Eruption Could Create New Land 93
wanzeo writes "An undersea volcano is erupting off the coast of the Canary Islands, bringing the potential for new land formation. The lava peak has grown 100 meters from the ocean floor, and is now just 70 meters from the surface. It has been seen ejecting rocks from the sea and producing jets of water 20 meters high. Increasing seismic activity has been monitored since July, an indication that magma is rapidly moving toward the surface. Local residents have been evacuated because of the potential danger from falling rocks or violent steam explosions if the lava gets too close."
Not so far from Cumbre Vieja (Score:5, Interesting)
The eruption is near the island of El Hierro, about 90 km south of the volcano Cumbre Vieja on La Palma. A few years ago Cumbre Vieja was in the news as a possible source of a mega-tsunami that would devastate the west coasts of Africa and Europe and the east coast of North America. Wikipedia has the story: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vieja [wikipedia.org]. The problem is that the volcano is unstable, and it could collapse and dump 500 km^3 of rock into the ocean.
Hopefully 90 km is far enough away not to bother it...
Re:Cause? (Score:1, Interesting)
You'll be able to blame global warming when the sea will have had swallow it again.
Re:Dibs! (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny enough, that already happened. In 1811 a similar underwater eruption near the Azores archipelago [wikipedia.org] caught the eye of a captain of a HMS Sabrina, a British warship. After noticing that the underwater volcanic eruption formed a small island, HMS Sabrina's captain decided to claim it for Britain through the cunning use of flags [youtube.com], in essence stealing portuguese land from under them and thumbing the nose at the Portuguese crown, which also happened to be an allied state. They named the new island Sabrina island [wikipedia.org] and proceeded to have a diplomatic row over this small episode. In the end the joke was on Britain, as the newly formed island crumbled into the sea.