On Monday, the volcano on La Palma took a break, then started erupting again. When will it stop for good?

Published on September 28, 2021
La PalmaNews from La Palma
thermal image eruption la palma canary islands
Thermal image that shows the current state of the eruption in La Palma | Image from INVOLCAN 

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.

On Monday, September 27th, starting from about 8 am (Canarian time), September 27, 2021, the Strombolian explosions had stopped and the volcano was silent for a few hours.

Many people started wondering if this could be the end of the current eruption on La Palma, which is why INVOLCAN (Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias / Canary Islands Volcanology Institute) has published a message on their page.

Can you say that the eruption is over?

It is still too early to say.

Several historical eruptions in the Canary Islands have followed the same pattern, of taking a pause for some time and then restarting again and even gaining strength.

How can it be established that the eruption is over?

Several criteria should be met, in order to declare that an eruption has stopped: in addition to the absence of eruptive activity for a sufficient number of days, zero values ​​will also have to be recorded in the emission of sulfur dioxide, which after water vapor and carbon dioxide, is the most abundant gas among those released by the magma. 

With regard to seismicity, it is possible for earthquakes of small magnitude to continue to be registered even for a few years after the eruption has ended.

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