SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 12. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Canarian Seismic Network operated by the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute (Involcan) has detected since shortly before 06:00 this Tuesday a new ‘seismic swarm’ located under Mount Teide with more than 630 events of very low magnitude and at depths of between 9 and 12 kilometers southwest of Pico Viejo.
From Involcan they point out in a note that this ‘swarm’ has characteristics very similar to those that were registered in Tenerife on October 2, 2016, June 14, 2019 and June 10.
Thus, it indicates that “the most likely origin is the movement of fluids such as steam, gas or water, inside the hydrothermal system of the Teide volcano” while specifying that “it does not imply a greater probability of an eruption, but it does recall that Tenerife is still a volcanically active island.”
The National Geographic Institute (IGN) also points out that the activity in all these series begins with the recording of a long-lasting signal, without defined seismic phases, and with high frequency content, subsequently giving way to a long series of hundreds of events of small and similar magnitude that occur at almost regular intervals of time, in the form of “drum beat”.
In some moments, even, the two types of signals coincide in time.
Series of this type, he continues in a statement, have been recorded on numerous occasions in the area, the first antecedent being the signals recorded in 1980 in the microseismicity campaign carried out in Las Cañadas and which showed that this type of activity could be recurrent.
The high detectability of the IGN’s Canary Islands Seismic Network now allows this activity to be detected and located, “undoubtedly related to processes within the Teide-Pico Viejo complex”.
Along these lines, he points out that the activity analyzed indicates a readjustment of pressures in the lower part of the crust, due to the volcanic nature of the insular building and the magmatic processes in depth.
This type of activity, the IGN points out, is “expected” on active volcanic islands and can remain at that depth or give rise to shallower seismic activity in the future, “without this pointing to an eruptive process in the near future.” .
