La Palma volcano has already emitted more material than the Teneguia eruption

THE volume of material that has been emitted by the La Palma volcano in eight days already exceeds that of the whole of the Teneguia eruption in 1971

Immediately after the meeting of the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Assistance for Volcanic Risk (Pevolca), this Monday, September 27, a press conference was held, during which, information about the evolution of the volcanic eruption on La Palma was revealed.
Included in this press conference were Julio Perez, spokesman for the Government of the Canary Islands; Miguel Angel Morcuende, technical director of Pevolca; and Maria Jose Blanco, director of the National Geographic Institute (IGN) in the Canary Islands.

Putting the current eruption into perspective, it was explained by Ms Blanco that an estimated volume of 46.3 million cubic metres of volcanic material has so far been emitted since Sunday, September 19. This total, after only eight days, already exceeds the 43 million cubic metres of the Tenequia eruption in 1971.

Uncertainty still surrounds whether the experts believe the lave stream will reach the sea, but, without confirming this, they did hint that it is “likely”, as it is now within 1,000 metres of the coastline, in a straight line.
After destroying parts of the town of Todoque yesterday, the lava flow lost its speed, and has subsequently divided into two separate streams. One of these has since encountered a slope, making it look unlikely that these streams will rejoin. The other stream of lava is reported as moving towards the south of the Todoque mountain.
Morcuende pointed out, “The pouring is very slow”, but stressed that the four points near the Tazacorte coastline where they anticipate the flow could reach first, are under strict confinement.
The Pevolca technical director concluded the press conference by assuring that the behaviour of the La Palma volcano is still that of a strombolian fissure type, with continuities and discontinuities in its activity, as reported by laprovincia.es.

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