Authorities warned that the lava flows could also threaten the municipalities of El Paraiso, Alcala and surrounding areas.Ĭarlota Martin was at an agricultural plot her family has in Todoque, just downhill from the eruption site, when she heard a huge explosion. The lava eventually reached some homes, causing at least one chalet with a tower to crumble. Mayor Sergio Rodriguez said 300 people in immediate danger were evacuated, roads were closed and authorities urged the curious not to approach the area. Shortly after the initial explosion rocked the area, one black lava flow with a burning tip immediately slid toward houses in the village of El Paso. Tinges of red could be seen at the bottom of the black jets that shot rocks into the air.ĭuration 0:18 Plumes of smoke rose from the hills of the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma following a volcanic eruption. At their nearest point, they are 100 kilometres from Morocco.Ī 4.2-magnitude quake was recorded before the volcanic eruption, which took place in an area known as Cabeza de Vaca, on the western slope as the ridge descends to the coast. La Palma, with a population of 85,000, is one of eight islands in Spain's Canary Islands archipelago off Africa's western coast. Huge plumes of black-and-white smoke shot out from a point in the volcanic ridge, which scientists had been closely watching following the accumulation of molten lava below the surface and days of small earthquakes.Īuthorities immediately evacuated more than 1,000 people, but Spain's Civil Guard said it may need to evacuate up to 10,000 residents. The Canary Islands Volcanology Institute reported the eruption on Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted in 1971.
La Palma, like the rest of the Canary Islands, is of volcanic origin, and its estimated age of two million years makes it one of the youngest islands in the archipelago.A volcano on Spain's Atlantic Ocean island of La Palma erupted Sunday after a weeklong buildup of seismic activity, prompting authorities to evacuate thousands as lava flows destroyed isolated houses and threatened to reach the coast. The Cumbre Vieja is one of the most active volcanic complexes in the Canary Islands and is the site of two of the last three eruptions registered in the area, the San Juan Volcano in 1949 and the Teneguia Volcano in 1971. Since records have been kept – starting with the conquest of the Canaries in the 15th century – La Palma has been the site of seven of the 16 volcanic eruptions the archipelago has experienced. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez postponed his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to travel to the island and oversee operations. Those started more than 20 kilometres underground, but were moving steadily toward the surface as magma worked its way upward under huge pressure from below. The National Geographical Institute and Involcan have been registering thousands of small earthquakes around the Cumbre Vieja since 11 September. The volcano has emitted between 6,000 to 9,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) into the atmosphere in the last 24 hours, according to the Canary Island Volcanology Institute (Involcan).īetween 17 to 20 million cubic metres of lava is expected to flow from the eruption point but a secondary eruption is not likely, the regional president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, told reporters. The subsequent lava flows are moving at an average of 700 metres per hour, slowly devouring trees, houses and land as it moves down the sparsely populated slopes. The eruption spewed lava and a dark column of pyroclastic ash into the air and magma rose to the surface through eight fissures in the mountainside.
La Palma is the most north-westerly of Spain’s Canary Island archipelago.
“100% of the people are safe,” he said, adding that authorities could turn their attention to infrastructure damage and the loss of homes to the lava flow, which is expected to reach the east coast of the island. Mariano Hernández Zapata, head of the local council, thanked the scientific organisations for having predicted the eruption, which allowed authorities to evacuate some 5,000 people from at-risk areas. Specialists had prepared for the event having monitored thousands of tremors in the region in recent weeks. The eruption occurred at 3:12 pm local time on Sunday in the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge area in the south of the island. There have been no human casualties, a regional official said Monday (20 September), EURACTIV’s partner EFE reports. A volcanic eruption on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has led to “devastating” scenes as a six-metre-high lava flow devoured houses, infrastructure and farmland in its path to the ocean forcing the evacuation of some 5,000 people.
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