The Canary Islands Volcanic Risk Prevention Plan (PELVOCA) has certified the end of the volcanic eruption on La Palma, which began on September 19th.
On 25 December last, the National Geographic Institute dated the end of eruptive activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on 13 December, 85 days since its eruption on the Canary Island of La Palma. Now, the island is focusing on rising from the ashes.
“The eruption is over,” announced the spokesman for the Canary Islands government, Julio Pérez, who said that the scientific committee considers the last day of the eruption to be Monday 13 December, the date on which the tremor signal stopped and all the volcano’s parameters declined.
It was regarded as “the best Christmas present”, the president of the government, Pedro Sánchez, has celebrated the announcement of the official end of the eruption. On his Twitter account, Sánchez, who has visited La Palma on several occasions during the crisis, expressed his appreciation to the people of La Palma. “We will continue to work together, all the institutions, to relaunch the wonderful island of La Palma and repair the damage caused”.
The eruption of the volcano, whose magnitude has been set at 3, lasted 85 days and 8 hours, from 19 September at 15:11 to 13 December at 22:21, according to the spokesperson of the Pevolca scientific committee, María José Blanco.
During the 85 days of the eruption, a total of 9,090 earthquakes were recorded on the Canary Island, and the maximum height of the eruptive column was reached on 13 December, the same day that the eruptive process came to an end, reaching a height of almost 8,500 metres above sea level.
Now, after almost three months of confusion and uncertainty on the island, the reconstruction process has begun on La Palma, where hundreds of families are still far from their homes. It had been 50 years since an eruptive phenomenon had occurred on La Palma, Teneguía being the last representative of the list of volcanoes that had changed the orography of the terrain of La Palma until the emergence of Cumbre Vieja.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of La Palma affected by the Cumbre Vieja volcano are demanding the delivery of the promised aid. The volcano on La Palma has destroyed about 1,600 houses and many families have been living with relatives or friends all this time.
Lethal Levels of Gases Detected in the La Palma Exclusion Zone
Emergency services (112) in Palma released a video on Twitter recorded by members of the Military Emergency Unit (UME) inside the exclusion zone of the La Palma volcano showing high concentrations of gases that could cause the death of a person in 30 minutes.
The text accompanying the images points out that in this exclusion zone – the video was recorded near the San Nicolás road, about 1.5 kilometres from the volcano’s emission centres – “any human being without maximum protection would have been unconscious in just a few minutes”.
Low-Intensity Earthquakes
In the last few days, around fifty earthquakes have been recorded, of which only two have been weakly felt by the population of La Palma.
However, the network of seismic measuring stations on the island shows no significant deformations that could be associated with volcanic activity, while the volcanic edifice is still in the process of degassing.
The National Geographic Institute has installed an Eruption Attention and Monitoring Centre to improve the monitoring of the Cumbre Vieja area.
Over the 85 days of the eruption, a total of 9,090 earthquakes have been recorded on the Canary Island, and the maximum height of the eruptive column was reached on 13 December, the same day the eruptive process came to an end, reaching a height of almost 8,500 metres above sea level.
Now, after almost three months of confusion and uncertainty on the island, the reconstruction process has begun on La Palma, where hundreds of families are still far from their homes.
It had been 50 years since an eruptive phenomenon had occurred on La Palma, Teneguía being the last representative of the list of volcanoes that had changed the orography of the terrain of La Palma until the emergence of Cumbre Vieja.
