Quake of 3,7 close to El Hierro

07/11/2015 20:01:13UTC    27.6906 (Lat.) -18.0586 (Long.) 

There has been an earthquake of 3,7 magnitude with the epicentre at 14 kms depth just off the southwest coast (see above) of the island of El Hierro just after 8pm (UTC) last night. The quake was widely felt on El Hierro.

The seismic activity had become very quiet over the past year and a half after a relatively active period which began in July 2011 and culminated in the underwater eruption of a new volcanic vent which came close to the surface and several stronger tremors which caused landslides and forced the closure of the island's main road tunnel. Luckily there were no injuries and life returned to   normal. The total number of seismic tremors recorded there since July 2011 now stands at an impressive 22.000 !

06/11/2015 04:01:00 UTC

Lately there appears to be an increase in seismic activity around the Canary Islands and especially El Hierro again. Only two days ago there was an earth tremor between Tenerife and Gran Canaria, also of 3,7 magnitude on the Richter scale, which was felt in several locations on both islands and according to some press reports even in Vallehermoso on La Gomera. This one was at a depth of 30 kms and is in an area where slight tremors occur fairly regularly.

About a week before that a 3,1 quake occurred far off the southwest coast of El Hierro at the same depth.

All these quakes are minor, but they show that the magma beneath the Canary Islands never really rests and it lets us feel that from time to time. While the 'young' island of El Hierro is especially active, its much, much older sister La Gomera is volcanically long extinct and quiet.
UPDATE: The strength of the El Hierro tremor has been revised and is now set at 3,8. 
On Nov 10th there was quake of 3,1 recorded east of La Oliva on Fuerteventura.