Talk:El Hierro

Meridian location
The exact location of the meridian on the island is not specified. It seems to be implied that the meridian corresponds to the westernmost point, but it's not said explicitly. The island is around 20' (25 km) wide - statements such as "the actual island of El Hierro itself is in fact 20° 23' 9" west of Paris", specifying longitudes down to arc seconds, don't make sense unless we're talking about a specific point on the island. --Itinerant1 (talk) 10:05, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

Since Paris is NOT the location of the Prime Meridian because despite French claims the Conference of the Sea in 1884 awarded the Central Meridian to Greenwich, London, United Kingdom and the island is about 18 degrees west of Greenwich. Paris incidentally is about 4 minutes of arc East of Greenwich. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.244.51.200 (talk) 17:03, 13 August 2014 (UTC)

The name "El Hierro"
I've answered these questions myself, and updated the article. Kotabatubara (talk) 14:51, 9 August 2011 (UTC)

Can anyone elucidate the mysteries of the name El Hierro? (1) What, if any, is the connection with 'iron'? Is the coincidence with Spanish hierro merely due to a folk etymology based on a phonetically similar pre-Hispanic word hero (as the present article implies) or erero or esero or |Heró or Eseró? If so, then why do we also find forms that look like the Latin for 'iron', namely "Ferro('s) Meridian" and "Insula Ferri"? (2) Presumably there either is, or is not, an abundance of iron on the island. What are the geological facts? One site says El Hierro is "named for the element that stains the soils of the island red." Another site says "The origin of the iron is volcanic." But another site says "What we know for certain is that the name ... has nothing to do with the metal, absent on this island." Pierre Le Hir agrees: "there is no sign of any ore here." (3) What is the water situation on the island? Why do we have the contradiction of the present article glossing the indigenous hero (or whatever) as 'cistern' and asserting that there are no wells on the island, while another site refers to "abundant water supplies"? (4) If not 'iron', what evidence do we have for the conflicting other meanings such as 'cistern' (present article) or 'milk' or 'island of fire'? The thoroughly detailed article in the Spanish-language Wikipedia seems to say nothing about the name. Kotabatubara (talk) 20:01, 26 April 2011 (UTC)

Earthquake Swarm
There probably ought to be something in the article about this - I've only got the one source but it does reference other sources that can be used to expand the article

Here's my version that can probably get pasted straight in but whilst the source is generally pretty good, some of it seems quite bold not to have a second reference. EdwardLane (talk) 08:22, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

Ok I found the source of that reference - looks like a reputable government site so I'm snipping the stuff on this page I had and I'm inserting it into the Main article

some interesting map/graph images here

and a 'live' list of all the ongoing quakes by coordinate, magnitude, depth etc here

earthquake swarm enters third week - more than 1000 quakes in total, slowing down and getting a bit stronger - more details here EdwardLane (talk) 15:51, 1 August 2011 (UTC)


 * This looks like a good source for a lot more info. EdwardLane (talk) 10:31, 2 August 2011 (UTC)


 * the live list above is still showing the earthquake swarm ongoing 10 August 2011 - just short of fifty quakes magnitute 1.5 to 2.1 on the 10th at about 11km depthEdwardLane (talk) 10:48, 11 August 2011 (UTC)


 * swarm still ongoing 21 August 2011 - New total since start of swarm over 3000 quakes. EdwardLane (talk) 14:01, 21 August 2011 (UTC)


 * Couple of images here and here that show the plot for the earthquake swarm - made by a chap called Lurking who frequents the bigthink eruptions blog. If someone can interpret it that would be cool EdwardLane (talk) 13:35, 22 August 2011 (UTC)

Eruption Underway

 * Ok photos this one with the ramon margalef ship for scale and this one definately showing multiple underwater vents causing plumes of bubbly water], small rafts of (trachyte based it is said) pumice. And at least 1 photo showing small geyser out of the sea, so looks like this is going to be a surtseyean style eruption today/tomorrow. Mostly intelligent debate on this blog and this blog if you're interested. I'm trying to spot anything from a 'reliable' source to update the article. EdwardLane (talk) 08:06, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

Unesco site
according to this

El Hierro was designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Reserve in the year 2000, with 60% of its territory protected to preserve its natural and cultural diversity.

I presume part of it to do with the critically endangered Lizard - but I don't see mention of Unesco and this image of the lizard is not being used either in this article. Seems like that should be updated if there are reliable citeable sources. EdwardLane (talk) 10:16, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

ok [this] seems like the best source. EdwardLane (talk) 10:25, 24 July 2011 (UTC)

age of the rocks
comment here suggests that the rocks date between 0.8 and 1.2 million years, not 100 m years.

It sounds very plausible, and the comment sounds like the person knows what they are talking about but need to find a good source so we can update the article. EdwardLane (talk) 09:13, 26 July 2011 (UTC)

younger age appears to be confirmed by diagram on this page

the global volcanism program has the volcano here


 * On this online source you can see the age of El Hierro and all other canary islands. --Sextant (talk) 19:40, 29 September 2011 (UTC)

Science for Lateral collapse
Volcano Instability and Lateral Collapse here is some science:

and

Gravitational spreading controls rift zones and flank instability on El Hierro, Canary Islands Munn, Walter & Klugel Geol. Mag.: page 1 of 12. c 2006 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0016756806002019  here

Frankly I would not trust any claim made by McGuire as he seeks financing from sources outside the normal sources for scientific research. His favorite source is believe it or not insurance companies who sell insurance policies to people by scaring them. As the best research seems to indicate that the Cumbre Vieja will NOT fail for at least 10000 years, McGuire's claim that failure is imminent is without foundation! If he said that tomorrow the Sun would rise in the west I would seek independent confirmation before I would accept his claims!! A person who is paid by insurers has sold his scientific soul to the financial devil. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.2.97.27 (talk) 15:13, 21 July 2015 (UTC)

More Geology
Another detailed geology paper EdwardLane (talk) 21:22, 14 October 2011 (UTC)

Underlying magma structure is well described here [The magmatic plumbing system beneath El Hierro (Canary Islands): constraints from phenocrysts and naturally quenched basaltic glasses in submarine rocks] EdwardLane (talk) 08:39, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

Upper Silesia?
So why is there a map of Upper Silesia in this article? Broadcaster101 (talk) 03:11, 30 September 2011 (UTC)


 * That is there presumably to illustrate the use of the 'Ferro Meridian', as discussed in the section 'The "Meridian Island"'. Mikenorton (talk) 06:40, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

Naming a volcano called 'Bob'
The naming of a new volcano called 'Bob' as part of the current activity has been referenced to a blog. I don't think that we should be using this name until and unless it is picked by a more authoritative source. Mikenorton (talk) 23:36, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

I think I saw a more official link to a source for the Roberto Bracamonte name, I'll see if I can dig it out. EdwardLane (talk) 11:48, 8 November 2011 (UTC) Fair enough, I can't find it EdwardLane (talk) 12:21, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

This is completely false. Currently there is not an official name for the volcano, but in the press and eventually in the official communicates it's called "Las Calmas" volcano. malpei — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.63.204.92 (talk) 07:36, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Spanish language news coverage of eruption
Current activity is show very well in this clip of the news. EdwardLane (talk) 12:21, 9 November 2011 (UTC)

Energy claims - and lack of reliable sources
This edit was removed, citing unreliable source. Probably right, but also lacking wp:Balance. This blog post from the same group (Flocard et al) shows data of mainly diesel as source of electricity, with renewables being a smaller part, ie. not sustainable. This appears to be reliable data to support this article. TGCP (talk) 19:38, 11 September 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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External links modified (January 2018)
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Smallest Canary Island
La Graciosa is now the eight Canary Island: https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/la-graciosa-eighth-canary-island

It is still governed from Lanzarote, but I think that makes El Hierro the second smallest. ElmoSlattery (talk) 15:59, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Added a link to the tephra page and a new reference
Hi,

A link to the tephra page and a new reference was added about the 2011 volcanic eruption. --Mikabella95 (talk) 20:01, 20 March 2020 (UTC)