Large crack in La Palma volcano cone threatens a possible collapse

Large crack in La Palma volcano cone threatens a possible collapse

An image published yesterday, Sunday, December 5, by the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME) , showed a large crack in the main cone of the Cumbre Vieja volcano . The volcano, on the island of La Palma first erupted 79 days ago . It remains to be seen if the appearance of this opening in the highest reaches of the cone could possibly cause the cone to collapse.

Scientists constantly monitoring the volcano have yet to voice their thoughts on what caused this crack in the cone, or what its consequences could be. Parts of the cone have already collapsed during the eruption , which the scientists will verify is normal.

Streams of lava continue to flow through various new fissures that have appeared in the last few days. The one that started flowing from the north of Cogote Mountain has decided to take a different direction to previous streams. It is flowing through an area that was already evacuated, moving southwest from the volcano.

Other streams from new fissures at lower levels continue to flow south, as well as running in the lava tubes formed by previous flows in what are known as 4 and 7. This was explained yesterday by Carmen Lopez, the spokesperson of the Scientific Committee.

She highlighted how the effusive focus located to the west of the main cone has been reactivated, and the lava flows through volcanic tubes. Two streams are also flowing towards the west over previous casts.

The emission centers associated with east-west fissures to the west of Cogote Mountain have given rise to several very fluid and degassed flows. These are moving at high speed to the west, on previously unaffected terrain, and are currently near the cliff, in the Las Hoyas area, as reported by larazon.es .

 

Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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