El Hierro – One year on

It will have been one year ago today since the submarine eruptions started on the island of El Hierro and the president of the El Hierro council, Alpidio Armas, speaks about the damage that has been done to the island. Mr. Armas explained that the economic damage has so far been estimated at over €20 million in lost revenue in the last year although there is a large unknown figure which is the ‘perception that the people have about the safety of the island’. He goes on to claim that the island is safe and that the economic situation is precarious and he is now seeking the support of both the EU and Spanish and Canarian government to overcome the islands economic problems. The recent re-activation of the seismic activity have hampered any attempts to attract tourists to the island.

“We know that nothing is happening” he argues, but the problem he faces is how to transfer this confidence to the visitors to the island. There have been 12,503 earthquakes, both on land and at sea, and no one has been hurt. He also claimed that the media have ‘amplified’ every single event that has occurred during the process which has ‘hurt’ the island. He has made a request to the scientists to continue with their research but to ‘not communicate every single event’ as to not further alarm people. He has also said that “if the measuring devices that have been have been on El Hierro were to be moved to another island, the results would be similar, since 99% of earthquakes are felt only by scientific instruments”. The National Geographic Institute have recorded a total of 12,503 earthquakes on the island, both on land and at sea.