The volcano Cumbre Vieja in the island of La Palma has been showing signs of unrest. The question on everyone’s mind is, will there be an eruption? Maybe, or maybe not. This is always hard to know.
The Spanish National Geographic Institute reports inflation, a total of 10 cm of deformation. As such it is evident that there is magma on the move under Cumbre Vieja, it has intruded underneath the volcano.
https://www.ign.es/web/ign/portal/noticias
There have been multiple swarms of earthquakes since 2017 in Cumbre Vieja, a total of nine. Previous swarms were probably magma intrusions too, but which did not reach the surface. The recent swarm however is more shallow and more intense than its predecessors which raises the possibility that the outcome may be different.
The current swarm started on September 12. A total of 4530 earthquakes have been detected at depths of mainly around 10 km, although there are a few which have been very shallow. The swarm commenced under the summit of Cumbre Vieja, where a magma conduit probably exists which is supplying the intrusion. Earthquakes have propagated to the northwest. This probably represents the propagation of magma filled fractures, possibly sills, radially from the centre of Cumbre Vieja. However the earthquakes only show a but a blur of what is going on down there. The exact shape and pathways used by the intrusions cannot really be known with much precision. It is somewhat similar to the prelude to the eruption of El Hierro in 2011 which also seems to have commenced with a sill that later propagated a crack towards the seafloor.
Image from the NASA.
The location of the earthquakes suggest a possible eruption in the NW sector of Cumbre Vieja. However there is a factor of unpredictability. The exact path that the intrusion takes may or may not connect with the surface, such being difficult to know if there will or will not be an eruption . The precise location where the intrusion will breach the surface is also difficult to know. The fissure could open in the middle of a town, in a forest, or it could open underwater, which are wildly different situations with wildly different consequences.
We can know however the style that the next eruption of Cumbre Vieja will take, whenever and wherever it happens. To do this we must look at the past history of this volcano.
La Palma
La Palma is one of the Canary Islands. It was formed due to volcanic activity. The oldest rocks of the island are 3-4 million years old and belong to a submarine volcano. These submarine lavas are now found at heights of up to 1500 meters above sea level in the Barranco de las Angustias, in the old northern part of the island, which shows the enormous uplift that the island has undergone. Probably numerous sill intrusions have pushed the volcano upwards.
La Palma. From the NASA.
La Palma is shaped like an arrowhead. The northern part is formed by the old Taburiente volcano. Deep gullies dissect the ancient lava flows exposing the overlapping layers of volcanic extrusions and the frozen dykes and sills which cut through them. The volcanic edifice was destroyed by a series of giant landslides, the last of which took place around 560,000 years ago. Activity continued inside the landslide scarp until 530,000 years ago. Afterwards activity died out in the northern half of the island.
Large scarp formed due to erosion of Taburiente volcano. Some sills and dykes are visible on the left. From Wikimedia, by Zyance.
Volcanic activity in the southern half of the island has been ongoing for at least 125,000 years and has constructed another volcano known as Cumbre Vieja, or also simply as Dorsal Sur, “Southern Ridge”. It is a shaped like a ridge in a N-S direction. Despite being different edifices it seems that Cumbre Vieja is part of Taburiente’s structure. Taburiente had 5 subtle radial rifts. This is much better appreciated in submarine shield volcanoes which are often shaped like ridges or like three to six-pointed stars. Knowing well the shape of submarine volcanoes I can see that Taburiente displays the same five-pointed star structure, although being subaerial it is not so easily visible. The longest, dominant rift goes southward, known as Cumbre Nueva. It can be seen that Cumbre Vieja is the southern continuation of Cumbre Nueva.
Topography of La Palma. Note the northern volcano Taburiente which is cut by deep gullies and a central erosional crater, and the southern volcano Cumbre Vieja which is dotted by young volcanic cones. There is a bow-shaped ridge connecting both volcanoes, this is Cumbre Nueva, the ancient rift zone of Taburiente, partly destroyed by a landslide. From maps-for-free.com.
The main magma erupted in La Palma, as well as in the Canary Islands, is basanite, which is relatively fluid, but not as much as say Hawaii. The fluidity is comparable to the more frequently active Mount Etna in Sicily. The magma is not so fluid that all of it would flow away upon landing on the surface, but it is not so viscous that it is entirely blasted into light pumice and ash carried away by the wind. The eruption style is known as “violent strombolian” or “violent hawaiian” depending on whether it produces explosions or sustained fountains. It is the middle ground between the blazing rivers of lava and the billowing columns of ash. This style is ideal for producing pyroclastic material that rains around the fountain, rapidly constructing a mountain around the vent, known as a scoria cone. These conical mounds of ejecta are everywhere over Cumbre Vieja. Because the volcano doesn’t have any central vent that erupts repeatedly, then it makes a new fissure each time it erupts. The pyroclastic material rapidly oxidices. This gives the terrain various hues ranging from black to red, which together with the abundant canarian pine trees gives the characteristic landscape of Cumbre Vieja.
Desertic volcanic landscape near the southern point of the island. San Antonio volcano visible in the centre formed in the 1677 eruption, The brighter cone to the left of San Antonio is Teneguia, which formed in 1971. From Wikimedia by Tony Hisgett.
Other magma types present in Cumbre Vieja are the tephrite and phonolite groups which are more silicic and viscous. They are present in trace amounts making small lava domes. A small volume of phonolite was emitted in 1585 producing tiny cryptodomes and domes, although the eruption was mainly basanitic.
Types of volcanic rocks depending on silica and alkali content. From Wikimedia by Woudloper.
Cumbre Vieja last erupted in 1971, 1949, 1712, 1677, 1646, and 1585. It is the most active volcano in the Canary Islands. Eruptions have taken place at intervals of 20-60 years. The exception being the remarkable 237 years long dormancy between 1712 and 1949. Why did this happen? It is possible that the volcano follows cycles of more frequent eruptions separated by long dormancies. Another possibility is that the enormous 6-year long eruption of nearby Lanzarote Island, occurring in 1730, induced a long dormancy in Cumbre Vieja.
It would not be unexpected that now, 50 years after the last eruption, there was a new one.
The eruption of 1949
The eruption that took place in 1949 is an interesting example of a typical Cumbre Vieja eruption.
Swarms of earthquakes had been frequent since 1936 and leading until the eruption. The morning of June 24 some fumes were noticed, and soon afterwards a towering black column of ash was rising hundreds of meters, if not more, into the sky. A new volcano had formed along the crest of Cumbre Vieja. The fissure had opened a small distance north of the highest point of the ridge. The vent is known as Duraznero.
During the following days Duraznero continued to erupt, belching out ash and rocks. Earthquakes frequently rocked the nearby communities and steaming fractures opened in the ground around Duraznero. Magma must have been making its way into growing fractures. Over the days the erupting fissure progressively grew to a length of 500 meters and developed 5 main vents, of which Duraznero 2, at the southern end, was the most active, creating a 170 meter-wide crater. The activity was entirely explosive but of a low intensity that must have been little more than a slight annoyance to the local population. The erupted lava was tephrite. Earthquakes were more impactful, they damaged houses, cracked roads, and occasioned rockfalls. On July 6 the ash was carried downwind over the island of Tenerife where it wrapped around the summit of El Teide in a menacing black cloud.
Fissures of Duraznero. Image by KrisNM.
On July 8 a stream of lava came out from a new location known as Llano del Banco, 3 kilometres north of Duraznero, and from the other end of a system of cracks that had opened up. It did so quietly with no explosive activity whatsoever. The lava must have been degassed by Duraznero, gone into cracks, and found an outlet at a lower elevation from Llano del Banco. The lava erupted was tephrite, same as that of the earlier phase of the eruption. The initial fissure died out at about the time the new vent opened.
It is common for eruptions of Cumbre Vieja to have some vents which are dominantly explosive while others are effusive. In the eruptions of 1646, 1677 and 1712 it also happened that the vents which opened at the highest elevations had explosive activity and built large cones of scoria, while other fissures opened at lower elevations, sometimes offrift, and even at sea level, producing solely lava flows. The eruption of 1949 shows how the process works. A vent that is high up degasses the magma and then it is carried laterally through fractures towards openings downslope from which it emerges effusively.
Lava descended in fiery tongues from Llano del Banco down the flanks of the mountain. People were being evacuated as the flow headed for populated areas. It took 10 hours for the lava to reach the main road of the south of La Palma. Later that day the flow had destroyed 20 structures, including houses, cellars, and barns.
On July 10 lava cascaded over a cliff into the ocean. From this day on the entry of lava into the sea became continuous, and a lava delta was gradually constructed. Cloud of steams rising over the waters were illuminated by the convoluted streams of incandescent rock.
A new change in the eruption took place on July 12. The composition of lava erupted from Llano del Banco changed from tephrite to basanite. It became less silicic. At a similar time a new vent opened 400 meters north of the initial vent of Duraznero in the location known as Hoyo Negro. Black cauliflowers of ash pierced with flashes of lightning rose rhythmically from the Hoyo Negro vent. It erupted various magma types including basanites, tephri-phonolites and phono-tephrites. Once again the vent uprift was explosive while the vent downrift was effusive. The basanitic magmas must have released their gas into the explosions of Hoyo Negro and then come out laterally through the opening in Llano del Banco.
Hoyo Negro projected bombs to a distance of 1 kilometre from the vent snapping the trees and setting portions of the pine forest on fire. Clouds of ash frequently dusted the western part of the island. The explosions excavated a 400-meter wide crater on sloping ground. This created a spectacular 200-metre cliff against the higher side of the slope, which exposed the many layers of ejecta painted in a variety of colours.
Hoyo Negro. Image by Rafael Medina.
A raging stream of lava continued to issue from Llano del Banco and cascade towards the coast. Despite erupting continuously for 18 days the vent produced no distinguishable ejecta, and shows how the gas had been entirely removed from the melt before erupting. The ground above the fissure collapsed among loud noises, the rocks fell into the stream and were carried away, a length of 150 meters of rock above the conduit was eroded away and disappeared leaving behind a deep chasm in the forest.
On July 22 the activity of Hoyo Negro was down to a solfatara. Llano del Banco was also dying down. By July 26 the eruption had fully stopped.
Early on the morning of July 30 the eruption suddenly resumed. Duraznero and Hoyo Negro exploded simultaneously. An hour later fluid basanite lavas emerged from the location of Duraznero 1 and poured into an old crater where it formed a lava lake which then overflowed and formed a narrow stream of lava that rapidly sped down the steep slopes of Cumbre Vieja, cutting the road of Santa Cruz de la Palma, and nearly reaching the sea after 11 hours of advance, when the eruption came to a stop. This was the last episode of the 1949 eruption.
The flow of July 30, although of rapid advance, it was fed at a rate of only 10 m3/s, which is very low. It was also similar to the mean eruption rate of Llano del Banco, which was approximately 14 m3/s. The explosive activity was of little volume so it probably does not change the overall numbers too much. As such the eruption of 1949 was of very low intensity, in both its effusive and explosive counterparts. Slow eruptions are typical of the Canary Islands. Such low intensity eruptions do not pose much of a hazard to the people, in fact no one died in the 1949 eruption, despite 120 houses or so being destroyed, and people having approached the eruption in order to view it. This doesn’t mean that the hazard is inexistent.
If someone stands very close to the vents he/she could be asphyxiated by the noxious gasses or may be impacted by a lava bomb or by lightning. Rarely when lava flows reach steep slopes they collapse into blistering landslides resembling small-scale pyroclastic flows that could potentially kill someone. Conditions around volcanic eruptions can change suddenly in unpredictable ways and become hostile to humans. Safety is not guaranteed.
If Cumbre Vieja erupts in the future it will probably resemble the 1949 eruption in many ways: an earthquake prelude to the eruption that may deal damage to structures, unpredictable opening of fissures, some vents producing mainly explosive activity while others feeding mainly streams of lava that destroy human properties, and also the likely entry of lava into the sea.
Of course if the current earthquake swarm will culminate in an eruption or not cannot be known for sure. Swarms before the 1949 eruption occurred as early as 1936 and did not culminate in eruption until 13 years later.
San Martin volcano, formed in a 1646 eruption. Image by Rafael Medina.
Interesting links
Eruption of 1949 (in spanish).
GRAFCAN visor (includes geologic and topographic maps).
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Heard report of new vents openinf further down and very close to some village but no confirmation via video so I take with a ton of salt
https://twitter.com/AN_Bdn/status/1439642192608378886 this one maybe (or is it smoke from a lava flow?)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_qmw9aXEAMMVxv?format=jpg&name=large
A picture of it
I’ve certainly see quite some structure damage already
There was an phreatic explosion a bit further down just now on the live stream.
GL Edit: Assumedly you meant “Live Stream”
Magma hitting groundwater probaly
is there a world first report of volcano activity inititining spot under constructions?
“I told you to drain the swimming pool!”
Red alert now…
Here’s the spot where the helicopter images show the lava flow:
I got:
28°37’2.30″N
17°52’25.48″W
The yellow marker is where the lava crosses LP-212 (El Paraiso):
That row of cones at the bottom of the picture tells a story of building on a volcano!
https://imgur.com/a/3GQMKol
Here’s those 2 engulfed buildings on my previous map. There’s going to be a lot of destruction…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKdIDajFI1I
big explision now
lava fountain
yeah to the left of the image ash and small explosions, impressive
I think we may have new vents clearing their path.
another explosion at 1903. those fissures are rather large.
on second thought…there is THE WALL(that one that is about to be breacked). in iceland…land of ice and fire….where are the dragons?
https://mobile.twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1ypKdgqvrwnxW?fbclid=IwAR2EghfGOMOyGcVV_-hhW-xUZ7K2-wzsPXf1oB2ct63obAZBKJZj7zsSMGk
Looks like fountains are getting denser now
Will be fun If the Aa manage to reach the ocean
“Fun” is not the word I would choose when people’s homes are in the path.
Geomorphological processes are fun to watch, but when they impinge upon peolples’ lives and livelihoods, it’s a double-edged sword of Damocles.
There’s always a risk to living with volcanoes, fertile soils and somewhere beautiful or cheap to live versus the risk of destruction and becoming a geographer’s case study…
It certainly won’t be fun for people who’s homes are destroyed in the process. Comments like that really turns people off from following the comments on an otherwise, as usual excellent and informative post.
Fun” is not the word I would choose”..
A valid observation. Volcano watchers are a diverse group. Senses of humor can be puzzling to those with a rational mindset. However, being willing to walk where some of them would explains much. The takeaway here is the level of science being shared notwithstanding. It is impressive!
I mean of course we have to take in account the poor people whose property has been damaged, bit I cannot deny that I find it fun to watch and follow hahah
Settling on a known active volcano is a conscious risk and now some will lose. Hopefully people have insurances that cover volcanic risks. It should be insurable?
If volcanic eruption causes ground deformation that could cause it’s own, practical headaches when corner posts move. First world problems…
“Fun”? Maybe not, and probably not the word a native english speaker would use. Its a complex of emotions of awe, fascination and admiration of the power of nature writ large and definitively on the face of our planet.
A nice live view (for now). Looks like high pressure jets!
https://youtu.be/lP1zzNoBZCk
Oh dear gods…
The fountains are tephra rich, a continuous shower of black lapilli will rapidly grow the cone. It is a relatively harmless eruption, as long as it doesn’t change in style.
If this were Plinian the lot at the base of the slope would be history by now.l
Is there anything worse that could come from this? What would be a potential mechanism to change the form of the eruption?
I’m assuming anything like that would be unlikely, right?
I don’t think it will get worse, but you never know with volcanic eruptions. One thing that could happen is that the vent started erupting phonolite, which is more viscous and potentially more explosive, but it might just make a lava dome if that happens.
The trees next to the vents are fine which shows the level of damage is not too great. A pelean eruption like some of Merapi’s or Lamigton would have blown away every tree and house down to the coast of the island by now, and even the upper layer of ground around the eruption would have been removed and sent flying away by the lateral blast. To put this eruption into perspective.
The lava flows will be destructive, but of course they are slow too. A great many houses will be lost. New land will be created and a new mountain out of the ground.
Impressive! There’s what, five or six vents actively erupting at the new eruption site in La Palma? Also, it appears fissure-controlled. I’m also guessing it’s basaltic lava, perhaps similar to the 1971 eruption.
I’d be very scared if I found out my home and patch of land it’s on was in the path of an active lava flow.
Yes!
I think my response would by Oh Sh*t. People are losing their homes already. 🙁
Just as predicted! The little vent in front doing ash explosions while the others are fountaining. With the ash and the large lava bombs, definitely NOT a tourist eruption.
Looks like we will get more vents even lower on the hill. How far down the hill will they go?
Huge amount of lava descending the hill from the new vent.
By the way – just to let you know Gelingadalir is ramping up for another run…
I must admit I’m quite surprised at the ferocity of the Palma jets. I didn’t think this would be a big eruption!
Any way of figuring out how high they are? Just eyeballing from the surrounding trees must be well over 150 meters
A lot of lava and big fountains…
just waiting to see it at night. How tall could those jets be?
The trees are not that high, as reference. But 100 meters the tallest jets will be?
For those who read things back 😉
current fountains looks wee bit higher.
See it now…
About 200m for me.
I am a bit worried because this went from quiet nothing into vigorous eruption in a matter of days. El Hierro brewed up for months before erupting. How was the run-up to the previous eruptions at La Palma?
I think that is a very good question.
Can anybody here go beyond the details already provided by Hector’s post ?
To my eye, this looks like the 1971 movies, and matches the account of 1949. Recency bias may be at play, also the amount of land development in the past fifty years…
clodser up video from the cone (do not know if it was posted already)
https://twitter.com/Conexion_BTC/status/1439662200587685899
Ironic that I had just referenced Lanzarote 1773 in my comments yesterday.
Hector gets a GOLD STAR!!!
https://twitter.com/VolcansCanarias/status/1439665524057726983
I wonder if Big Island is going to be overtaken in destruction, this is awful.
Very big explosion at 21:14, near the vent!
I tried to localize the exact spot of the vent on the topleft image. Note the good agreement of the trees, paths, rocks.
The marker is at 28°36’56.75″N, 17°52’9.43″W
Sorry, if this is too much. Here is the location on the map (‘Los Campitos’ on ~800m).
RE: earlier post I don’t believe there is an immediate risk of landslide/collapse etc. at Cumbre Vieja, I said the other day though it’ll probably happen at some point in the next million years or so. But they do seem to coincide with volcanic activity hence the oomment regarding increased risk. And a fault did develop during 1949 eruption.
Just if a dike or sill has been emplaced it’s going to put extra strain, and then the release when the eruption happens.
Is this shaping up to be a larger eruption than expected? Some of this fountaining looks extremely intense, not to mention the multiple vents going at once here. This is really wild.
somehow Spanish is the correct language to report on live coverage of a volcano. Still Prayers for safety.
How far to the ocean? Anyone? Anyone?
About 5.4 km from 28°36’56.75″N, 17°52’9.43″W to the sea, as the crow flies.
This is really intense! Can see the lava dropping from the sky
https://twitter.com/VolcansCanarias/status/1439673737205403650
From another view point. Looks like a lot of homes are sadly going to be destroyed tonight.
https://youtu.be/lP1zzNoBZCk
From this point of view you can see there are more vents, although smaller further back, to the right of the main ones.
I agree. We can see a place on the lower part with biger ash column
the chat on the live stream is erupting faster than the volcano itself. lots of morons talking about a tsunami warning for Brazil, getting people riled up.
For who-ever will miss livestream footage
Very impressive.
It is a curtain of fire….
A fissure eruption, though I saw a crater erupting in the left part of the Canary TV view at daylight as well.
In intense parts a the eruption jets are 150 m high at least.
The last big lava flow covered a lot of area.
I am thinking that the fountains are 1500 feet tall?
Fred Olsen???? doesn’t sound Spanish.
Shipping company that operates ferries between the islands, founded by a scandinavian guy.
Full moon rising over a landscape on fire on the TV Canarias stream…Eerie sight.
Those lava flows are so impressive and a lot of houses surrounded by lava!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_rCrNuXMAgNvR-?format=jpg&name=large
I have this screenshot saved of it
The fountains look huge, but it is difficult to work out the scale of these on the night cams. Needless to say they are clearly hundreds of metres high, when they give you a wide view..
Anyone know why there are periodic large explosions downstream o of the lowest effusive vent (TV Canarias), just on the right bank of the the lava stream? These keep occurring and give rise to large, black (optical illusion in the dark?:) plumes that hide the fountains from view periodically on the Sixty Media and TV Canarias views.
The explosions are caused by the opening of new vents. First old (grey/dark) material is ejected, but after a while you can see glowing chunks. The eruptive fissure seems to propagate further in a northwesterly direction.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E_rCUFOXIAUkkQ1?format=jpg&name=large
This looks concerning
RE: “This looks concerning..”
Think Vacationland…
Yes this is just terrible! If this eruption don’t stope all those houses will burn!
Don’t worry too much. My sister who understands Spanish said they have apparently evacuated everyone in the danger area.
Nothing they can do about the houses but they can be rebuilt as they surely will even in such a clearly dangerous area.
Although I enjoy volcanology; It always makes me sad to see scenes like that, people tend to say that they can rebuild which is true, but we have to remember that those are cherished possessions, whether it be family homes, holiday homes, businesses where memories are made, and to see them get destroyed without any way of saving it must be devastating for the owners.
Look terrible for the locals.
Guys? It never rains but it pours. The faf tremor plot is doing something bizarre …
https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1439685777496096772
We have calculated the approximate flow speed at the middle of the lava’s trajectory is 0.7 km / h. The lava cools and the surface solidifies. #LaPalmaeruption
Early measurements conducted in the field record lava temperatures of 1075°C #LaPalmaeruption
Thank you for the information, I wanted to ask at some point.
And how many degree Celsius was Fagradalsfjall? I read something of about 1240 °C, which to me appears to be insanely hot. I also read/heard of (the same?) Kelvin temperatures which would be a lot cooler then (in this case just under 1000 °C).
What is the truth?
Lava flow temperature is round 1075c
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=303967074867622&set=a.162195062378158
This video is all over the net, I guess you all have seen it 10000 times. Is it fake? I mean: is that today or some other eruption somewhere else? I tried to find the location, but didn’t succeed. Can you find the spot?
Looks like a Spanish style chimney, for what it’s worth. Plus agaves.
It appears to be authentic judging by the guys accent i would say
Yes it’s true… one of the first houses burning or even the first
I know that it is spanish and that 48000 people retweeted it and wrote that it was the first house burning. Is it true? Where is that house exactly? I couldn’t find that house on Gigglearth.
I saw it live… on news video
But often they show videos from the social media in the news.
Possibly at 28 37 05 N 17 52 16 W?
Thanks for searching, but I don’t think so. The rich vegetation is missing. Also the house, the chimney, the driveway on then left? The two bigger trees on the left don’t fit (if you look upwards). —
It only took a moment to find it on Google Maps.
28.57181055455776, -17.86424772897584
You can make out that tall chimney from the closer plane photography.
It’s real. And it’s gone. 🙁
Here’s a picture
Well, here is your house (nice chimney, no question) and the yellow marker at the eruption site:
(I’m still not sure if all the media spread a ‘fake’ video)
Clive, this is far away from the eruption site. And nothing, except for the chimney, fits. Appreciated, but will still haven’t found the house from the video.
I’m not sure what version of Google you are using, but my Google Maps shows this:
The eruption is up the hill from this home, and the house is close enough to be that early victim.
The left marker is, of course, the chinmey’d house.
So, where does your info come from? Have we out of place locations?
Clive, I don’t think you have the right eruption site there. I checked my site serveral times with the available helicopter pictures.
I’m trying to get some exact info but failing. 🙁
Can you share a link please? I’d like to get this straight!
That chimney needs to be found!
See the postings above (with coordinates). I compared Gigglearth with several different sources (an aerly video of the eruption from helicopter, a helicopter view of the lava coming down into the village, a video of another burning house I could identify via street view). But I couldn’t identify this strange chimney house …
Clive: Here is the location I figured. The spot is down at the street where the lava crossed, the vents are up the hill.
28°36’56.75″N, 17°52’9.43″W
Aha- yes you are absolutely right!
The Google Maps pin must be wrong. In which case I’ll have to find a new chimney…
That said, the one I found bears a remarkable resemblance to the video. Perhaps it was a landslide and earthquake damage from earlier in the day?
Thanks!
https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1439683225476124677
Video made by our colleague María Asensio who is at one of the lava flows of the eruption … goosebumps #LaPalmaeruption
https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1439691016248958981
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More stable and biger lava fountain now…
Look a lot like Etna paroxysm now, some estimation about the height of that fountain?
last i saw couple of hors ago around 300 but this vas early on loks hugher now
Those explosions continue in front of the fires. Dark clouds, no lava. Happening every few minutes and some of the clouds are big enough to hide the fountains.
Someone asked earlier, what are these? Forgive me if I missed the reply somewhere. Are these Phreatic explosions where magma hits the water table? Throat clearing for more vents? Something more serious brewing?
Anyone have any thoughts?
I think they are throat clearing. I while back you could see a little bit of lava with some of the eruptions.
At 5:59 ish EST on the feed below you see a little glow at the base where the explosions are. It is very short
and 6:03
Yes can see them now. I think they are getting more frequent and bigger. New vent by the morning?
I watched for about 20 mins, then suddenly saw flame shooting out right where the black clouds erupted, but the flame was barely lit, like it was starved for oxygen. This happened 3 times which told me that the black clouds shooting up were from a vent lower down. You could call it throat clearing, if you like. When the flame shot up, it was very rapid, lasted less than a second and instantly went dark again.
Between 17 and 20MT of lava untill now…
https://twitter.com/ScottDuncanWX/status/1439695006718169097
Calling to catch up and woah! That’s some serious fountaining going on. Poor locals must be losing homes and farms everywhere.
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First poster. Hi all. Geologist here.
Relocated earthquakes showing the pathway of magma: https://twitter.com/ita_dc/status/1439687321637490691?s=19
Onset of the eruption as recorded by local Televisión Canaria, live in their daily news just seconds of the first explosion: https://youtu.be/6Lq1oignDhM
Welcome aboard!
Some interesting images here
https://mobile.twitter.com/ezequieleg968
Ignore the one he’s included of Geldingadalir/whatever the official name of the Reykjanes eruption is (happy 6 month birthday today to that).
Anyone know what the lights are? They seem awfully bright for lava.
They appear to be something like headlights or floodlights.
Building gone up in flames?
The camera has now zoomed in and they seem to be flickering like fires, albeit they are in a differnt location now and are more widespread.
When I watched the camera panning around and zooming in, they were fires started by the hot lava.
I saw those earlier during the day and they looked like LEDs or strobes. Still can’t come up with a reasonable explanation.
Some more videos from the flows
https://www.facebook.com/100005285145627/videos/pcb.3061699630737387/853575151963776/?type=3&theater
This is me again, crawling up on my soap-box.
Long time readers remember my work in dredging up info on El Hierro. Due to my disdain for that run of events, I have been reticent at looking into La Palma. Enough about that.
One thing that I do wish to point out, mainly for the doom-mongers out there that wish to hype the flank collapse scenario, this is pretty much a NON issue at this time. If there were to be something of that in the cards, you really need to plot out the depth vs topography of the island to look for quakes starting along a decollement region under the island. (for anything big). Failing that, nothing nasty (well, nastier) is going to happen. I took a look and didn’t see anything like that in my plots, but if you are into plotting, that is what you would look for. I reccomend a fairly high resolution cross sectional view tangential to the main ridge-line. If it is gonna show up, that would give you your best bet of finding it.
Caveat, Not a geologist, actual geologist opinions are more than welcome.
Note: If you are going to try to do this, Haversine functions may be quite handy. I recommend “The American Practical Navigator” (aka “Bowdich”) as a reference. {Spherical Trigonometry}
[Your spreadsheet formulas will get nasty, but it’s quite satisfying when you figure it out]