The Azores are about to explode!
According (
https://bit.ly/3Nazm46) to the Center for Seismovolcanic
Information and Surveillance of the Azores (CIVISA), the swarm
started at 17:19 LT (16:19 UTC) on March 19. Three earthquakes
were registered over the next 2 minutes, with magnitudes ranging
from 2.8 to 2.9.
The first earthquakes were felt with maximum intensity IV/V
(Modified Mercalli Scale) in the parish of Manadas, with intensity
IV in Urzelina and Norte Grande, and with intensity III in Calheta.
Over the next 24 hours, more than 700 earthquakes were recorded
in the region. All had low magnitudes and only 48 were felt, CIVISA
said.
Head of CIVISA, Rui Marques, said that Manadas volcanic fissure
system, which coincides with the main volcanic cones on the island,
is still active and now registers a release of energy that was not
common in recent years.
"All the earthquakes felt in Sao Jorge since Saturday are of tectonic
origin," Marques said, adding that the largest earthquake was
M3.2 at 01:43 UTC on March 20. The quake was felt by the
populations of Sao Jorge and the island of Pico.
"We are still evaluating the behavioral pattern of this seismic
crisis, which is now in a phase of lower energy release," Marques
said. The seismic events are now progressing toward the village
of Velas.
The current seismic swarm makes many remember the earthquake
swarms that preceded the 2021 eruption on La Palma in the
neighboring Canary Islands," said Dr. Tom Pfeiffer of the
Volcano Discovery.
The linear Sao Jorge Island is 54 km (33 miles) long and only
6 km (3.7 miles) wide. It was formed by fissure eruptions beginning
in the eastern part of the island.
The western two-thirds of dominantly basaltic Sao Jorge contains
youthful, fissure-fed lava flows resembling those on neighboring
Pico Island.
Lava effused from three locations above the south-central coast
during 1580, producing flows that reached the ocean.
In 1808 a series of explosions took place from vents along the
south-central crest of the island; one of the vents produced a lava
flow that reached the southern coast.
Submarine eruptions were reported on several occasions from vents
off the S and SW coasts. This volcano is located within the Azores,
a UNESCO Global Geopark property.
