The Cumbre Vieja volcano continues its pyroclastic and fluid lava emission activity.
Photo: Miguel Calero / EFE
The volcano lava, which 79 days ago entered eruption on the Spanish island of La Palma, destroyed 60 buildings during the last hours, according to the technical director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca), Miguel Ángel Morcuende, on Tuesday.
At the press conference after the meeting of the Pevolca steering committee, Miguel Ángel Morcuende and its scientific spokesperson, Carmen López, specified that These 60 buildings are in the laundry area that has passed the Las Hoyas viewpoint.
With these last contributions of lava, the area affected by the lava is 1.82 hectares, and, in terms of buildings, according to the Copernicus satellite system, there are 3,039 affected, of which 2,881 have been destroyed.
The new flows of the last hours are very fluid, they are highly degassed, they are of high temperature and they advance rapidly, but they are ephemeral, something that does not happen with those of the main cone, explained Carmen López.
Regarding air quality, Morcuende said that in the southern area of the emergency, values have been registered that, in principle, were not health hazards, but were high in Puerto Naos and La Bombilla, the latter area in which the presence of gases makes free access difficult.
The National Geographic Institute (IGN) of Spain located 14 seismic movements on La Palma this past dawn, one of which has had magnitude 3.4, and occurred at 2:32 am at a depth of 13 kilometers under the municipality of Fuencaliente, where another seven have been located.
During this morning, the Cabildo de La Palma (the administration that runs the island) reported that access to the exclusion zones affected by the volcanic eruption that began on September 19 in the Cumbre Vieja area.
In this way, for the moment, residents and irrigators will not be able to access, neither by sea nor by land, both to the south and to the north.
Some measurements that may vary depending on the meteorological conditions and the eruptive evolution.
The emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2), associated with the volcanic plume of the current eruptive process underway reflects a downward trend since September 23, and on non-visible emanations, such as diffuse carbon dioxide (CO2), it continues reflecting an emission higher than the average value of the background levels.
These diffuse fumes do not represent a danger to people, unless accumulations of CO2 form in poorly ventilated depressions, displacing oxygen from the air and generating anoxic environments.
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eldiariony.com
Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.