La Palma

It was officially announced today that the volcanic eruption of La Palma that began on September 19 at 3.11 p.m. in the Cumbre Vieja area has ended on December 13 at 10:21 p.m., which means that the volcano has erupted for 85 days and 8 hours, which makes it the longest eruption since historical data about eruptions have been recorded on the island.

According to the Institute of Volcanology of the Canary Islands, the volcanic tremor has disappeared since Monday night at around 9:00 p.m., which is the longest period of inactivity since the eruption began on September 19.

Due to high levels of air quality in sulfur dioxide, the authorities in La Palma had to order yesterday the confinement of the population in the municipalities of Los Llanos de Aridane, El Paso and Tazacorte.

The current volcanic eruption on La Palma started on September 19th and at that moment probably no one thought that it will last this long, surpassing the previous longest eruption known to happen on the island.

Since the start of the volcanic eruption, a lot of roads on La Palma have been destroyed or cut off by the lava, so for some local farmers, it has become impossible to get to their plantations.

La Palma airport has once again reopened for commercial flights on Saturday, after being closed since November 20.

Las Manchas cemetery, a solar farm, and also several other houses have sadly been destroyed after the reopening of an eruptive fissure on the eastern side of the main cone of the volcano in La Palma.

As the volcanic eruption on La Palma continues, the island has been the scene of some unique occurrences recently, when a new eruptive mouth opened up from under a house.

The Government of the Canary Islands ordered the confinement of residents living in Tazacorte, San Borondón and the area of ​​El Cardón up to the Camino los Palomares, due to the arrival of the lava that had advanced for days between the mountains of Todoque and La Laguna.

Monday is a public holiday in the Canary Islands, so with a long weekend ahead, Miguel Ángel Morcuende, the director of Pevolcan, has announced that there will be buses running to take tourists to see the volcanic eruption happening in La Palma.

Last night, more people had to evacuate their homes on La Palma due to the lava flow advancing towards their homes on its way to the sea.

According to David Calvo, the spokesperson for the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute (Involcan), in a declaration for EFE today, the second lava flow will reach the sea in just a few hours, as the eruption continues at a fast pace.

Since Saturday, when the north part of the volcanic cone collapsed, the eruptive activity of the volcano has increased and the lava is now more fluid so it flows quicker and keeps destroying more areas and buildings.

According to PEVOLCA, the data on seismicity, geochemistry and deformation indicate that the end of the volcano's eruption in La Palma is not near, so people should be prepared for more days of continuous eruption still.

PEVOLCA announced that there are now two more eruptive mouths in La Palma, so there's a new lava flow that could merge at some point with the other initial lava stream.

The lava from the eruption on La Palma has destroyed a lot of land and homes on its way to the sea, but since reaching the sea it has started to accumulate and it's now making the island of La Palma grow.

Last night, 10 days after the eruption on La Palma had started, the lava flow reached the sea at around 11:03 pm Canarian time.

Although the volcanic eruption in La Palma is still continuing with its strombolian characteristics, currently it has a more effusive character compared to the previous days and the air traffic between La Palma, Tenerife and La Gomera could be affected by the ash cloud tomorrow.

The eruption started on the island of La Palma on Sunday, September 19th and on Monday, September 27th, the volcano took a break for a few hours, while people were getting their hopes up that this could be the end of the disaster.

This is a short updated published by INVOLCAN (Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias / Canary Islands Volcanology Institute).