Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Canary Islands Eruption Could Create New Land

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-call-dibs dept.

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."

7 of 93 comments (clear)

  1. Dibs! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Dibs on the new land!

    1. Re:Dibs! by JustOK · · Score: 5, Funny

      only if it's passed from the left-hand side.

      --
      rewriting history since 2109
    2. Re:Dibs! by GreatBunzinni · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Funny enough, that already happened. In 1811 a similar underwater eruption near the Azores archipelago 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, 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 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.

      --
      Slashdot, fix your code or at least hire someone who is competent at it to do it for you.
    3. Re:Dibs! by laejoh · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cunning use of flags? The captain's name was Baldrick?

  2. Not so far from Cumbre Vieja by djmurdoch · · 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. 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...

  3. Re:How far off shore? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I read the articles, and it's possible I missed something, but how far away from the existing land masses is the eruption and in which direction? All I saw was a vague mention of "South" at some point.

    Anyone?

    Sure, between 2.6 and 3 km south of "La Restinga", "El Hierro" island

  4. Re:Buy Land by Nidi62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, I wonder what real estate agents on the Canary Islands are going to say now.

    Get it while it's hot?

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil