A volcano tourist at La Palma

/ 08/10/2021

This post was published by the author at
https://peakbook.org/Þróndeimr/tour/437021/Vulkanutbrudd+på+La+Palma.html, and is reproduced and translated) here by kind permission by the author.

Volcanoes have fascinated me since I was little but it was not until the eruption on Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 that I looked at the possibilities and began to reflect on the idea of going to watch an ongoing volcanic eruption. Until now, I had considered Iceland as the most likely destination for seeing an eruption. Iceland is nearby and many of the outbreaks there last a long time, which I need to find the time and to have the opportunity to travel there. Then the volcano must be of a small size. An ashy eruption would close the airspace for flights and such eruptions are usually short and intense. That it became a trip to the charter destination of the Canary Islands came as a surprise to myself as well.

This is for several reasons. The volcanoes in the Canary Islands mostly offer fairly stable small eruptions, but they happen so rarely that I had not listed them as a probable place to see a volcanic eruption. At La Palma, for example, a volcanic eruption occurs about every 50-90 years; the eruptions have a duration of between about 20 and 90 days if you look at the previous six historical eruptions. Teide / Tenerife sees 4-6 eruptions over a thousand years, i.e. much less frequently. Lanzarote sees large eruptions in a series which last a long time, but perhaps as infrequently as 2-4 times per thousand years.

Earlier this year, such a “tourist volcano” started in Iceland. Fagradalsfjall Volcano is perhaps the perfect tourist volcano and with Iceland’s policy around this, quite extensive measures were initiated to secure the surrounding areas so that 50,000 tourists could see it up close every week. Unfortunately it had to happen in the middle of the pandemic, so I was unable to go there. And now that the country is reopening, the volcano in Iceland has gone a bit into sleep mode.

Then the volcano Cumbre Vieja on La Palma appeared, just before the reopening at the end of September. I found fantastic cheap airline tickets, so I dropped all plans and some duties I had agreed to, in order to hop on the plane to the disaster area in the Canary Islands. To make sure I would be able to reach the island, I first booked flights to Tenerife. I had planned out the journey ahead but did not book anything until I had landed on Tenerife. The reason for this was that so much was unpredictable, not only in relation to traveling to La Palma during a volcanic eruption, but also at the airports in relation to the pandemic. I had a stopover in Naples, i.e. in a ‘yellow’ country (Italy). The Canary Islands were also ‘yellow’ while Spain was ‘red’. During phase 1 of the reopening only ‘green’ and ‘yellow’ countries were exempt from quarantine upon return to Norway.

When the plane landed on Tenerife after pandemic delays through chaotic conditions in Naples, I had 40 minutes to take a taxi from the airport down to the port and get on a boat to La Palma. The boat was covered in ash from the volcanic eruption at La Palma, a clear step towards the destination! While on the ferry, I booked an overnight box room in an old building in the capital Santa Cruz de la Palma to sleep in, for NOK 200 a night, something I had not tried before and was really excellent!

The Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma is a strombolian volcano. Such eruptions are small and stable, reaching 1-2 on the VEI scale (which runs from 0 to 8). The current eruption is VEI 2, with typical tall lava columns and occasionally some ash. It is rare for such volcanoes to produce so much ash that it causes significant problems farther away, but they can produce sulfur dioxide (SO2) and other important volcanic gases.

On La Palma I rented a car and spent the night in the island’s largest city, Santa Cruz de La Palma. The city is located on the east side of the island, sheltered from the eruption which is on the west side of the island. From where I was it was about a 30min drive to the eruption. A marked area around the volcano was closed down. The map can be seen under the Risk Assessment at the bottom of this report.

The first trip into the area was already fascinating. I drove the rental car along some narrow, local roads east of El Paso. The roads were covered with 2-3cm of ash, very interesting to drive on! I parked the car and made my way through the woods to a ridge from where there was a view of the eruption. The risk assessment at the bottom of the report describes which assessments I took before going there. The massive sound from the eruption, as well as two small earthquakes made the experience a powerful one. This was the first trip and in a bit of a hurry I had not immersed myself too much in the up-to-date information from the geologists in the area. I turned back a lot earlier than I could have done.

At this time, the volcano had built up an approximately 70m high volcanic cone. An ash-rich cloud rose from the cone, while on the northwest side of the cone lava erupted from a side valve. The lava that flooded out there looked almost Hawaiian, not strombolian.

To get a better overview of the area and the volcano, I took a trip to Pico Bejenado, a peak of 1852m just 8km north of the eruption. Up to this time, the volcano had ben active from two location. On this day, the main crater erupted a thick and dark cloud of ash rising 6100m into the atmosphere, before falling down again. But lava erupted from the west side of the crater, shown in the pictures above. This lava flowed straight into the cities below and was on its way to the sea.

While I went up, there was a change in the volcano. I felt two new earthquakes. Both were short, around 2-3 seconds and measured 2.9 and 3.1. I had never experienced an earthquake before, so I must say I thought it was very exciting every time. Not long after, the pattern of the eruption changed. As you can see in the pictures below, the main crater went from being in a stable ash eruption to exhibiting pure lava columns, in a more explosive form than those of the side vent. It was a typical strombolian eruption pattern. During this trip the lava reached the Atlantic Ocean and a toxic cloud settled like a lid over the entire area, which you see in one picture further down. This fog disappeared later in the evening when the wind dispersed it.

After the trip up Pico Bejendado it was late at night, but I still wanted to drive to the barricades to see the spectacle up close. I, like many others, stood by the barriers about 1900m from the eruption to look at the lava columns that stood 800m up. Seeing something like this from the streets of the city while it is being destroyed is something I probably will never forget. Something significant is still missing from this report and that is the sound of the volcano. The massive and roaring sound makes it almost impossible to talk to the others near you. It can be compared to a fighter plane taking off, only that it takes off constantly!

I slept for no more than 3 hours through the night, no time to sleep any more! I Went out again and observed the volcano from an area in the northwest, near the town of La Punta. The big challenge on that day was that the wind was very strong from the northeast. The falling ash blew around the island and made it uncomfortable everywhere. Around 70% of the island had been covered by various amounts of ash during the previous days. Inhaling ash was annoying but not much worse: the ash particles from this volcano are so large that they do not go down into the lungs (important with lots of nose hair!) But they irritate the eyes quite a lot. Glasses made it hurt worse when turbulence between the glasses propelled the ash particles into the eye. In advance, I bought a cleaner in relation to such particles.

It was thus set for a day with some distance from the areas closest to the eruption, at least for the first hours while the wind was strongest. From the vantage point above La Punta, I could see the lava flowing into the ocean and the chemical process that occurs when the lava meets water and turns into corrosive clouds. An hour after I sat down on the observation post, the volcano changed its eruption pattern again to a more ash-rich eruption from the main crater.

After a few quiet hours at the observation post in the sun, the trip took me to La Palma’s highest peak, Roque de los Muchachos with its 2426m. From here, of course, the eruption was clearly visible!

Then came the darkness and I wanted to take one last night trip and watch the eruption before my journey continued the next day. The wind still blew from the east / northeast, as strong as before with 15-20 m/s. But now it had been blowing for so long that most of the ashes that could be moved had been moved. With the constant wind direction and the stability of the eruption, it was vest to approach from the east, with the wind in the back while watching the eruption. I explored the terrain and for each ridge ahead there was a short stop to re-evaluate the framework and the risk. I was able to pinpoint an area just over 700m northeast of the volcano cone. The cone had changed a bit in character lately, it seemed to have started to sag in the west edge so that the lava columns also went further out, good of me who was on the east side since I had a good margin in relation to falling materials from the volcano. In the dark here I also met two German “volcanic tourists”. They were very secretive but wanted to get very close as they said. I never saw them again, so possible I was closer than them!

The strongest earthquake I felt was while parking the rental car in the parking basement at the airport. The earthquake measured only 3.1, but it felt more violent than the previous ones in that category. The quake lasted about 3 seconds, but all the cars vibrated, as did the pillars that held the airport up.

Risk assessment

Here I will make an attempt to convince you as a reader that I has made appropriate sensible assessments in relation to the three trips I made close to the outbreak. The map shows these three:

Trip no. 1. Distance from photo location to the eruption: 1900m

Trip no. 2. Distance from photo location to the eruption: 1500m

Trip no. 3. Distance from photo location to the eruption: 740m .

This is my first trip close to an ongoing volcanic eruption so the assessments were made accordingly. For many, it will probably seem headless to go as close as I have done, but I have written down the reviews I have made below. You get a somewhat misleading and frightening picture of the volcano in some media. I was more skeptical even when I went into the area before I saw the eruption, the terrain around, the weather and the wind and all the information from the official sources Involcan and Copernicus. Involcan had a very good information channel on Twitter with information and explanations. Copernicus added good maps and satellite images for good help. Wind and weather reports as well as satellite images and radar images, for which I like to use Windy where you can find webcams and the like. Live video was also posted on Youtube which could be checked when I myself did not see the eruption due to terrain obstacles while I was moving around. Yr also works quite well abroad and provides more accurate weather forecasts than any other service.

Trip 1: This trip was only a few hours after the lava reached the sea and high values ​​of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide were measured in the area by the sea and up to the area I went into. I was actually going to drive back to the hotel after the trip up to Pico Bejenado , but quite suddenly the wind increased considerably from the east / northeast. It matched well with the wind message and satellite images of Windy and I could see that all the haze and fog that lay like a lid over the cities west of the eruption blew away. Driving down to El Paso, some low haze between the buildings was blown at full speed towards the sea. I drove through one scch fog and it smelled like a thousand rotten eggs. The air became clearer and I drove to the roadblock in the street in question. The roadblock is about 3km away from the eruption, but from there you can enter a new barrier that is manned closer to the eruption (1900m from the eruption). The biggest challenge with the trip was that the wind started to blow up so much that the volcanic ash started to drift with turbulence around the streets. Many other people showed up at the barricades to take pictures.

The distance to the eruption of close to 2km seemed good and that is probably why they have set the barriers here. All the ash and gas from the eruption itself and the lava flows blew in a safe direction at sea. The lava columns were up to 600-800m in height and threw the lava 200-300m out to the sides. A possible risk apart from lava, axis and gas is that the volcanic cone becomes unstable as it grows and slides down on the western edge as it is constructed on a steep slope. It can trigger landslides of hot pumice, ash and lava that can reach a few hundred meters beyond the terrain at the western edge of the eruption. The pressure from the volcano can blow the mass further out to the west, northwest and southwest depending on how the rift is constructed. The volcano was quite fierce when I was here, with lava columns that stood 600-800m up. GPS track from tour no. 1: Approach 3.

Trip 2: The trip went towards the eruption during the day. The wind direction went from west to east, so I approached from the north. There wasn’t much wind so I was tried to keep to the ridges where air quality was best. At this point I did not know exactly how much gas was coming out so I could not assess it well. Therefore I added some margin and kept my distance and stayed where there was some wind. The area had a good shower of ash from the day before, and there was warm ash on the ground, up to 15-20cm where I stopped (1500m from the eruption). I observed many different birds both high above the ridges and down in the depressions beyond (positive in relation to air quality). This mountain side has an inclination of about 10-15 degrees towards the sea in the west, so it takes a lot for high values ​​of gases to remain in this area. I stopped and observed the eruption from 1500m. It was tempting to walk 300m to the next ridge which is the last high marked ridge before the eruption, but notification of a change in wind by the end of the day meant that I wanted to keep the margins while I still did not feel I had one hundred percent control over all risk factors. At this time, the ash cloud from the volcano rose 6100m into the atmosphere. Lava bombs and such materials were thrown up to 600-800m from the crater and up to 300m out of the crater. After the trip, I read the latest report on the gas measurements in the last few days, which gave me more leeway on trip 3.

A little more about gas: Usually SO2 (Sulfur Dioxide) is the biggest challenge in a volcanic eruption. The gas is colorless, but a small amount of it will smell strongly, with a kind of rotten egg so it is easy to detect. The gas, on the other hand, can mix with moisture and come down as acid rain (sulfuric acid), then it will be able to cause damage to the skin and eyes mainly as long as it is not inhaled in a way. InVolcan measured 7,000-11,000 tons of SO2 per day in the days before the lava reached the ocean, a modest value. By comparison, Pinatubo emitted 20 million tons of SO2 over a few days in 1991. A volcano in Iceland emitted 120 million tons of SO2 that killed tens of thousands in northern Europe in the 18th century. Kīlauea in Hawaii also erupted the day after I went on this trip: it spewed out 80,000 tons of SO2 per day for the first two days which can present health challenges if you have asthma or other respiratory challenges.

CO2 (Carbon dioxide) can also come in large quantities from volcanoes, it is both colorless and odorless and difficult to detect without measuring instruments. Fortunately, CO2 is easily transported away by wind and pressure from the volcano so it usually goes straight to the higher layers of the atmosphere. H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide) also occurs and is perhaps one of the more dangerous gases from a volcano as I have understood it. It is formed when sulfur from the magma reacts with water and is often a challenge in volcanoes that are close to lakes, have a large lake in the crater or are connected to large amounts of groundwater. Water is something La Palma is in short supply, both groundwater and lakes are absent from the island. InVolcan did not mention any hydrogen sulphide in its report on the measurements made. Otherwise, different gases are formed when the lava burns through various organic plants, houses, buildings and materials. The gases are easily carried by wind. GPS-Track from trip no. 2: Approach 2.

Trip 3: The wind that had started the day before had blown strongly throughout the day. Strong wind, 15-20m / s from northeast to southwest was blowing ash and gas to the sea. The biggest challenge was all the ash that blew around. The residents down in El Paso had to walk around with goggles. In the media, there was a lot of attention about the dangerous gases that occur and it probably scared those who read it. From InVolcan, which publishes the official information, very few dangerous gases are measured and those living on La Palma are reassured. There was talk of the formation of larger amounts of hydrogen sulphide down by the coast where the lava flowed into the sea and this formed some fog that was corrosive, but not a danger to those who lived on land even though at one point they were encouraged to stay inside one village near the harbor. Involcan had a boat standing close by at all times and never measured high values ​​of H2S while I was on the island. In any case, this was not a real threat at the altitude I was at (600-1300 masl). There has also been increasing earthquake activity throughout the day and some hobby geologists and fans presented the idea that a new and larger crack could soon open some kilometers south of the eruption. The media bought this and some drama unfolded online. This was written off as a probability from an official standpoint with good and logical counter-arguments a few hours later.

When starting the trip I had no goal of where I could get to. I was looking for a safe area with a good overview, preferably with a canopy north or east of the eruption. There are fairly steep mountain sides above the eruption, so if you want to stay safest closest to the eruption, it is from this angle with good wind direction. The eruption was a bit weaker than the day before with lava columns 300-400m high with some fountains and lava rocks up to 500m. Coming closer, I saw that the lava columns angled slightly to the west rather than straight up as yesterday, an advantage as no lava bombs or materials are fired more than around 50-100m east. I thought this might show a weakness in the volcanic cone, sagging on the west side is logical on a fairly steep slope going downhill to the west. This was confirmed two days later when it was expected that there would be a landslide to the west which could change the volcano’s behavior to some extent.

I got into an area just east of the volcano, with some canopy and with a lot of wind in the back, so much so that I had to search a little around to find shelter. Here I was also not completely alone and some geologists were taking pictures (they had driven up with an ATV). There were also traces from 5-10 others who most likely had been here through the day after the wind turned. From here I had a good overview, some 700m from the eruption, and at least 600m clearance of any falling material. Here the ash was the deepest of what I had walked on, between 30 and 50cm. I dug down a couple of places and found that it was quite warm (50-70c) even two days after it had fallen here. GPS-Track from trip no. 3: Approach 4.

So now I have become a volcanic tourist. Fortunately, that is a healthier tourist than the charter tourist!

Christian Nesset

Related posts

691 thoughts on “A volcano tourist at La Palma”

  2. Thank you for the article! The photos are impressive and beautifull!

  3. Your images are very, very good and I appreciate you sharing them.
    The sounds of the beast you have, and the spill and rank of the land you could see and respect.
    Feel for the souls who’s lives have been ruined.

    Thank you.

  6. A terrible destruction.. Sodom och Gomorra
    2.0 😵‍💫 : O .. But that legend was caused by an Asteorid that exploded in the atmosphere

    Anyway How will this eruption effect the economy on the Island? Its certainly a historical event. Will La Palma sink into economic depths?

    • It’s not going to be good. Ash has damaged much of the banana crops, such that they don’t meet EU regs for sale. Other crops have been damaged as well 🙁

      Don’t know if they can rescue the edible parts of damaged bananas and preserve it for future use.

      The area as been declared a disaster zone and aid packages have been declared.

      Haven’t got current links for the above, but my go to resources for updates are El Mundo and El Time.

    • On the other hand, wouldn’t it be extremely interesting to travel to La Palma just now and/or shortly after the eruption has stopped?
      Like feel the heat and power for yourself as long as it’s still impressive 😮

  8. Very many thanks for this article Christian. I love your narrative style and very much envy you your trip. The closest I have ever come to a volcano was a trip to Edinburgh with the school and a climb up Arthurs Seat, an extinct volcano overlooking the city. Even that is a distant hazy memory now. Therefore I took great delight in reading about your trip. So well narrated and illustrated that it was definitely the next best thing to being there myself.

  9. Looks like 4 vents now at 11 pm CET. Two vents are in the middle cone of which one seems to be most active and the other is smoke.. Vent 3 is pure smoke, and vent 1 is somewhat active. I have seen this behavior repeated several times now.

    • I could be wrong, mistaking the heavy smoke to the right as hiding vent #3, but actually there are only 3 vents, the very heavy smoke and clouds are making it difficult to see what is happening.

  10. You are correct there are 4 vents, the one at the back doesn’t show too often.

  11. Great to read your full article, Christian. It really brings the experience home. I’m very jealous! 🙂
    Thank you!

  12. Another very deep one…

    2.7 mbLg

    SW VILLA DE MAZO.ILP
    2021/10/08 22:29:41
    35

  13. Just watching TV Canarias is that a new lava flow to the left it’s moving pretty fast .

    • I believe that this was an old vent that never fully opened.

    • Huge amount of lava collapsed both sides, the left was second but bigger. I think this new lava flow is dominant in the short time. Jumped old path. Not good.

  14. es2021ttnbq 08/10/2021 23:55:06 00:55:06 28.5842 -17.8210 39 4.1 mbLg
    IV
    SW VILLA DE MAZO.ILP

  15. Did anyone else notice the soundwaves above the vents just before or just after the M4.1 you could clearly see them ringed in all the smoke the looked to be moving forwards and backwards.

  18. Regarding the collapse of the cone yesterday, I found just be coincidence a scientific paper about the exact same thing happening on Lanzarote to one of the cones there. In that case though the collapse was more violent, at this early stage in the eruptions (3 months in) there was no major rifting and a lot of groundwater, so it was almost like a mini lateral blast than a slow collapse like we just saw. There was also a short phase of plinian high fountaining right after as the conduit was depressurized and a flood of lava to the sea as a lake in the crater was released, all that lava was later buried though so its path is not exactly clear.

    https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/73424

    Not at all likely to happen but still, maybe those comment trolls about a St Helens style eruption are just a tiny bit more realistic.

  19. 1:15 hours ago, the main lava “pool” close the main lava arm and start to raise, flooding the mountain side and create a new lava arm to the north, now that has moving on north direction and can be boarding the north lava side. Waiting for more info about them, can be destroy new properties if no return to the main lava course.

  20. Around 1:30 am local time, the hot lava tongue hit something in the valley and set it afire with copper green flares. Did it hit an electrical substation? Seems like something chemical is burning with white-green flashing.

    • Some of that is lightning. I was recording, so I got a few volcanic lightning bolts + their sound, which is identifiable, once you hear them. It will take a bit for me to process the 1.2 gigabyte file

  24. Over the last half hour the main vent has been collapsing spectacularly. Can’t work out where the lava is going now!

    • Gas emanating from rear of vent producing machine gun succession of shock waves, very pretty.

  25. I wonder if the flames seen coming from the vents are not actual flames but rather incandescent ash? Maybe this is what fluid lava does when it is erupted fast enough to explode, just eruptions powerful enough to do this are not too common. Flames on Kilauea are from hydrogen, but that is formed because the magma is very reduced, so reacts with water to make H2. There was actually a video of that place where they make synthetic lava by melting basalt and at the bottom there was molten metallic iron, presumably the Fe2+ disproportionates into Fe3+ and Fe metal, and at that temperature the metal will react readily with water to make hydrogen. Alkaline magmas are not usually so reduced though, at least as I understand it, they contain a lot of water and CO2 already so are too oxidising for the above reaction to occur. H2 would react with CO2 to make methane at this temperature which is what was suggested as a source of flames for this eruption but that seems unlikely too as there shouldnt be any H2 to begin with.

    Maybe less likely, but the alternative is that this alkaline melt is only a precursor and there is larger scale melting going on deeper down. I do keep going back to Lanzarote but this was exactly the sequence there, initial eruptions were single vents erupting floods of alkaline lava, but then a defined rift appeared after a few months and the lavas became much more tholeiitic, even true tholeiite basalts at longer lived vents.

    • chad, I am with you in this.
      In an earlier comment about the “oil well fires” at the volcano I already suggested this effect to be incandescent ash, since I couldn’t work out how to get such copious amounts of combustible gases from volcanic activity.
      Moreover I’d expect hydrogen flames to be all but invisible in light of such a substantial environmental lighting.
      Or are the clearly visible at Kilauea? Do you have a good video example? Would be inclined to watch 🙂

      • La Palma is a very green island. Anything will grow. So unlike Iceland and the dry side of Kilauea, there is a lot of organic matter in the soil. What you call ash may include soil particles and those can burn. I don’t know whether that is what is happening, but it seems possible. Another option is that sodium vaporizes in the lava

        • Very good point, thank you Albert!
          Some time ago, I have dried flower soil and have been able to make it smolder and become ember!

  26. I recorded 2 hrs 36 mins 11 secs tonight using the VLC program to load up the youtube internet address, hit play, so it works from the network stream, then hit the red record button.

    2 bad things happened this evening, the sound went very soft, almost inaudible, and I had to use audacity to renormalize the sound, I even found the point in the audio where the sound volume got changed.

    Secondly and this is frustrating, I was hoping to record the lightning video and audio, because lightning was flashing around the cone. I saw about 5 bolts, 3 were clouded in the smoke, one was a nice green color over the cone and the last one was your typical lightning bolt, colored a bit yellow, due to smoke.

    VLC did something unusual to the video, it did NOT record bit per bit but compressed the video into a bland 480p or 240p format thus chopping out a lot of detail. And of course it missed the lightning bolts. I have only 1/30 sec frame # 240237 with the last bolt but it only shows a dot flash on the video frame, and the sound is also distorted.

    Is there anyone who reads Volcano Cafe who knows how to capture the full real-time video/audio successfully from a real time outlet like DIRECTO tv? I was so hoping to cut a small video showing the bolts tonight, but what I found out is distressing mush.

    Appreciate any tips. Thank you!

    – Randall

    • Hi, I think without big cost or a really steep learning curve, your best bet is Youtube-DL, from youtube-dl dot org

      It will download a feed up to the second you start downloading it, for as far back as it goes. It wouldn’t be hard, to have it downloaded in high-quality format, automatically every hour or every few hours. You’d end up with some overlaps, but that’s easy to edit out. at least you’d have all the feed, in best quality, to then chop and edit as you saw fit.

    • VLC is good but sadly the ability to configure it very precisely is its Achilles heel.
      You will probably have to delve into the setups to get what you want but luckily there are many tutorials about on how to do this. I am guessing its set to copy a low-res source (twitter?), which it promptly did.
      I would do some trials to see what its actually told to do, then delve into the setups which are slightly oddly located at first sight.
      Not least is the conversion from one stream into another, for example I use it to convert big .avi files into small .mpg and that requires correct setting up.
      Its also possible to grab the file in the cache from whatever browser you use. Hard to find and usually has a random .type, but just a rename of the type can make (a copy) readable..

      • PS VLC can also rotate video which is quite useful on occasion.

  28. The new flow is a fair way north of the existing area. Based on where I think one of the buildings that burnt in the night is, I put it as coming though here

    This building:
    https://maps.app.goo.gl/xTKojasjdraRzMHe7
    The lava front was encroaching at 0215 UTC on

  29. This morning it seems to me that this eruption is significantly more vigorous and with larger amounts and more fluid lava than we have seen of late. Certainly I wouldn’t want to be living within any likely blast zone right now. Its worth remembering Vesuvius in Pliny’s day, which although very much larger, this eruption seems to be emulating (roughly).
    Certainly I can see a capability for a huge increase in the ash column putting huge amounts aloft, which then stops, resulting in a widespread pyroclastic flow.

    • Had the same thought, Vesuvius is basically a big version of Tajogaite, it is the very high gas content of alkaline basalt that makes it explode so when that is not present the lava is very fluid and in fact Vesuvius does exactly this, and so does Nyiragongo.

      Does make you think about the eruptions at the older Hawaiian volcanoes, Hualalai is supposed to have had several subplinian eruptions in the past 2000 years, it is easy to see that now. Also the basaltic eruptions of the southern volcanic zone in Iceland, the lava is still very fluid but most eruptions make big cones, which is very rare elsewhere in the country.

  30. Hi all

    9.12am on Afar time stamp, black clouds appear on right hand side of screen. Lava flow? New vent? Difficult to tell due to angle of the sun, but looks like something going on.

  31. It’s probably a tick of the light causing grainy focus due to the smoke, but in my fevered imagination it looks like smoke is being ejected with some force on the right hand side of rather screen, suggesting a vent. I checked the TV La Palma camera and can see smoke, but not Rhine more. But I think this is behind a spine of the dome on their view. It’s probably a lava flow causing something to burn, but we’ll have to wait for a clearer view.

    • Oops. Sorry autocorrect played with that post
      Tick = trick
      Rhine = any (how it got that autocorrect who knows!)

    • In the video linked a few posts up, go back 7hrs 15 minutes, you can see it destroying buildings. Lava seems a bit more fluid than a week or two ago

      Is it actually a new vent, or is it just a change of direction for the outflow? There have been various collapses, so it may have just changed route ?

      • Definitely much more fluid, quite apocalyptic around 07.10-20 on the Afar Feed #2 camera, which has a timestamp (the caption says TV CANARIAS, I think they have added the timestamp).

  33. Saturday
    09.10.2021 08:23:17 65.085 -16.847 2.6 km 3.0 99.0 6.5 km S of Lokatindur

      • Tolkein was an Old Norse and Icelandic scholar and knew the Icelandic and Norse sagas well.

        “In 1920, he became Reader in English Language at the University of Leeds, where he claimed credit for raising the number of students of linguistics from five to twenty. He gave courses in Old English heroic verse, history of English, various Old English and Middle English texts, Old and Middle English philology, introductory Germanic philology, Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Medieval Welsh.”

  35. In the sea, on the east side of La Palma island…

    3.4 mbLg ATLÁNTICO-CANARIAS
    2021/10/09 09:28:43
    5

  40. By the La palma Tv last direct. Three? lava flows descend by the south side of the industrial park.


  41. Looking at the Fagradalir webcam this morning shows a wet, cold and windy Iceland, compared to the warmth of La Palma. It’s strange seeing webcam results so different – one of the joys of live webcams. Always grateful to those who run them, thank you.

    It looks like my Keilir guesstimate is a failure. I’m frying the eggs right now to wipe over my face. (yes – I’m left with egg on my face). I’m just over-enthusiastic.
    Askja has managed a 3.0 at 2.6km down (and yes, that’s verified for my critics).

    Have a good day watching folks. Off to eat eggs….

  42. On La Palma “it has become night” at noon. The ash cloud is so dense that nothing can be seen.

    • The power company guys must be busy, trying to keep the lights on with power lines dropping all over the place.

      Last night looked surreal as new lava advanced and street lights were poking out of the lava, still illuminated.

  44. One camera seems to be dead, the Afar TV one (“LIVE: La Palma Volcano Eruption, the Canary Islands (Feed #2) 105”).

    Pity, it had a useful timestamp.

    TV La Palma (“Último hora! canal 24 horas del volcán de la isla de La Palma”) is still fine, showing currently a lot of flow on the new more northerly path.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATZY4wntQ0g

    TelevisionCanaria (“DIRECTO | Erupción del volcán en La Palma”) is dead, but that I think is what Afar were piggybacking on.

    • TelevisionCanaria is back online, though currently showing some plastic garden furniture

  45. La Palma. That front-most vent is sounding like a blow-torch!

  47. Thanks to Albert and Dragons for having Christian Nesset’s experience, detailed description and pictures in here as a post.

  48. The chosen positions behind the eruptions are pretty good too.
    I am missing the meaning of the last sentence though. What is a “healthy” tourist? I would say happiness is the base of health and well-being, and most tourists are happy whatever they do.
    I think it is sort of illiberal to start classifying tourists.
    In the American constitution of the Founding Fathers there is a passage about the right of happiness. This seems to be an enigma to most Europeans.

    • Yep. The American constitution assigns all men the right to pursuit of happiness. (Not quite the same as a right to happiness..) Japan also, I think. The package tourists have a bit of a reputation – certainly pursuing happiness, but perhaps not so much health..

      The US was ahead of its time. ‘The rights’ in the US was of course in contrast to being owned by the English king. And it applied to European immigrants. The the original inhabitants and the slaves (and the wives of the immigrants?) would have to wait a bit longer. The US was ahead of its time, at the time.

  49. Absolutely, thank you so much for sharing. I have enjoyed reading that article!
    Interestingly enough he mentions a geyser height of 600 to 800 m more than once, which is even more than the 500 m suggested in earlier comments. 😮

Comments are closed.