Another earthquake strikes off El Hierro coast

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At 9.32 pm on Tuesday, the IGN recorded an earthquake measuring 2.0 on the Richter scale, around 20 kilometres off the coast of El Hierro.
Over the past 30 days, the institute has recorded 70 tremors off the Canary Islands. That is an average of 2.3 per day, with a magnitude of 1.9.
Due to more frequent tremors around Mount Teide, the Tenerife Island Council is planning two emergency drills in Guía de Isora and La Laguna.

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The IGN recorded another tremor off the coast of El Hierro on Tuesday. At 9.32 pm, an earthquake measuring 2.0 on the Richter scale struck around 20 kilometres off the coast of the Canary Islands. The Spanish National Geographic Institute recorded the tremor, which has since been confirmed by the Euro-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), at a depth of 30 kilometres.

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The magnitude was close to the average for recent weeks: the Institute recorded 70 earthquakes within and off the Canary Islands over the last 30 days. On average, this amounted to 2.3 earthquakes per day with an average magnitude of 1.9.

Over the past seven days, seismologists in the Canary Islands region have recorded eleven earthquakes. In fact, this represented a slight decrease across the archipelago as a whole.

Tenerife: Emergency drills due to seismic activity on Mount Teide

Last week, the Institute reported another earthquake measuring 2.2 on the Richter scale off El Hierro. However, earthquakes of this magnitude are not usually felt: according to seismologists, this only begins at a magnitude of around 3.0.

Recently, more attention has been focused on Tenerife, where the Island Council has announced emergency drills. Due to increasing seismic activity around Mount Teide, the Island Council on Tenerife is planning two drills to simulate a volcanic eruption. The authorities on the largest of the Canary Islands are testing various emergency scenarios in Guía de Isora and La Laguna.

According to researchers, however, there is no cause for concern: the Canary Islands are of volcanic origin. There, minor tremors in particular are a regular occurrence. Beneath Pico Viejo, a subsidiary volcano of Mount Teide, researchers recently identified a large magma chamber. Even there, however, an increase in tremors does not automatically mean an increased risk.

However, there was another series of earthquakes off the coast of Tenerife: most recently, the IGN reported numerous earthquakes in the immediate vicinity of the island, 30 kilometres north of Punta del Hidalgo off the north coast of Tenerife, within the space of a single day. The strongest, measuring 3.6, was even felt.