After Iceland, there was La Palma. It could have been the Azores, of course. There are more than just two volcanic archipelagos and islands in our youngest ocean, the Atlantic Ocean. But it was La Palma. Could we have seen it coming? Eruptions at La Palma are about ten times less frequent than at Iceland, perhaps two or three times per century. Still, it would happen eventually. And to put it into perspective, the chances of an eruption in La Palma were much higher than one in Reykjanes.
Image source : Twitter @jonni_walker
The eruption began on Sunday 19 Sept, at 3:12pm, with a small bang. As is common in La Palma eruptions, the dike which had reached close to the surface was contained by the older lava flows above. Eventually the pressure reached breaking point, an explosion occurred which blew out the old lava (the brown clouds), and an opening was made for the new lava to come out. It happened on the west facing slope of the Cumbre Vieja volcano where two fissures formed, each about 200 meters long. At peak there were 11 vents in action but one vent became dominant. (Steam is apparently still rising from other vents though.) A common aspect of La Palma eruptions is that the vents form near the cones of previous eruptions, possibly because the ground there is easier to break through. This eruption too came from an area riddled with previous eruption cones, and the current vent is next to an old cone (now presumably buried). Disastrously, the erupting vent was on a slope above and close to a populated area. The lava is relatively cool and slow flowing, but as of this morning, 390 homes have been lost. A thousand people may now be homeless. A few houses may have been second homes (still a terrible loss – in spite of some comments made, most owners of holiday homes are not rich) but for the large majority the house will be everything those people possessed. We live at the mercy of the earth.
The location of the dominant vent
The ESA emergency satellite mapping service sprang into action. Images of the flows show the location and expansion better than the ground based press ever could. This is not a tourist eruption and we do not have the wealth of images and videos that Iceland has produced. Those are for ‘nice’ volcanoes, not for human disasters.
Copernicus radar images of the lava flows
Eruptions here are not highly explosive. Still, it seems to be evolving towards a bigger bangs. The eruption rate is not too high (perhaps 50 m3/s) and that also is helpful.
How will it continue? Previous eruptions have jumped between different vents at different times and that could happen this time as well. And previous eruptions have lasted between 24 and 84 days – we still have a way to go.
La Palma
The Canary Islands are a group of larger and smaller islands, are volcanic, and are located off the coast of southern Morocco. We know one of them very well from previous activity: the submarine eruption of El Hierro, south of La Palma. Tenerife has the largest volcano and Lanzarote had the longest lasting historical eruption. The entire region remains active. This differs from a conventional hot spot where one may see extinct volcanoes further from the current location of the spot. Here the heat is distributed over a larger area. There is however a bit of a gradient, in that La Palma is still in the shield building phase while islands to the east did that a long time ago. The heat may be slowly migrating west.
Canary Islands. Source: wikipedia
The fifth largest of the Canary Islands, La Palma is mountainous. The roads make for interesting driving as they wind up the sides of the mountains. Seeing upside down cars is not uncommon (on one drive I saw two). One main road goes underneath an active volcano by means of a tunnel: this may be a unicum, but do drive carefully especially when exiting the volcano (where I saw one of those two overturned cars).
From the Digital Terrain Model of the National Geographical Institute of Spain (reduced resolution). Sourced from https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/island
The mountains form an impressive volcano. The peak is 2430 meters above the sea level but this underestimates the true size of the beast. The base of the volcano is 4 kilometers below sea, making it over 6 kilometers tall. Submarine volcanoes have an advantage as they can grow much steeper and the water helps carry the weight. They grow faster and taller than their aerially exposed counterparts. Still, this is a large one.
La Palma is a complex island with multiple volcanic features. It has history. A history of five volcanoes, in fact, all of which can still be seen on La Palma.
The map above shows that there are two obvious volcanoes. The northern, large one with a hole in its side is called Taburiente, and it is extinct enough that an astronomical observatory has been build on its peak. (Mind you, another one is build on Mauna Loa.) The big hole is called the Caldera de Taburiente. Standing on the top, the Caldera is very steep (I know from experience). The smaller ridge volcano to the south is Cumbre Vieja, and it is clearly not extinct as it is currently erupting. There is a saddle between the two volcanoes called Cumbre Nueva. Cumbre Vieja, in spite of its name, is the younger of the two: the names ‘Vieja’ and ‘Nueva’ refer not to the ages of these ridges but to the forests on them.
La Palma is quite a rainy island (tourists beware: the beauty of the greenery gives a hint), and erosion has carved deep valleys in the sides of the volcanoes. These are locally known as ‘barrancos’. The barrancos on Taburiente are deep and steep (causing difficult and bendy driving here), whilst they are much less prominent on Cumbre Vieja. Cumbra Vieja is young whilst Taburiente is old and weathered, as lined as the faces of the people I once saw going to work in the cold of Novosibirsk.
But there have been volcanoes here before. The steep sides of the Caldera de Taburiente have cut through the layers that make up the volcano. Not all those layers are from Taburiente: some are much older than the current volcano. Even the old can be young, when seen in comparison to those who came before. We so easily forget that no one feels as old as others think they are: we perceive our own age from our memories. But we all are old at heart: our memories give life to people who may have long since passed away. They haven’t really passed on, until all living memory of them has ended. La Palma has kept those memories of the departed, and has brought them to the open. Let’s dive in.
Submarine volcano (unnamed)
The oldest lavas that are exposed in the Caldera formed under water: pillow lavas are seen, interspersed with tuff and sediment. There are also intrusive rocks that formed from magma injection underground, with many dikes running through them. Although all this formed under water, nowadays they are on dry land: the layers were uplifted later to above sea level. In the Caldera they are seen as high as 400 meters above sea level. Some of the lava flows formed in deep water, other in shallow water: the uplift continued while the subsea volcano was active. We normally think of uplift (also called inflation) as coming from growing magma chambers in the crust. That is part of it, but uplift on this scale has a deeper origin. The mantle and lithosphere below are heating up as a hot spot moves underneath. Hotter rock has a lower density and therefore floats higher, like a cork in the bath. Everything above rises too as the heat increases. This is the main process that causes large scale uplift in volcanic regions, and it is also the reason that when the hot spot moves on, the island it created begins to sink. If you live on a volcanic island, a volcano that stops erupting can be as dangerous to your future as one that is actively burying your land.
Exactly when the submarine volcano first began to grow is not well known. The oldest accurately dated lava (using radio isotope dating) formed 1.7 million years ago. But micro fossils embedded in the sediments are older: 3 to 4 million years. This sounds old for a volcano that hasn’t moved much, but it is young for the Canary Islands. Tenerife is at least 7 million years old, and Gran Canarias may be twice that. Unlike Hawai’i, the volcanic activity here does not migrate, but there has been a slow shift in peak activity from east to west. Interestingly, this westward shift (2-3 cm/yr) is similar to the spreading rate of the Atlantic ocean at this location. The area has kept its distance to the mid-ocean rift and perhaps that is where it gets its heat from. The alternative model of a mantle plume has also not been ruled out though.
The submarine volcano began to grow 4 million years and by 1.7 million years ago may have become an island. The orientation of the dikes changed over this time. Originally they ran southwest to northeast, but as the volcano developed a feeder conduit the dikes rotated to a north-northwest to south-southeast orientation, similar to the north-south elongation that we still see in La Palma.
Garafia volcano
The island volcano that now formed is known as the Garafia volcano, and it is considered the second volcano of La Palma. It is named after a village on the north coast of the island. This volcano grew over a period of half a million years, between 1.8 and 1.2million years ago. It reached an impressive size: Garafia reached 23 kilometers across and was at least 2.5 kilometers tall: this was the first shield volcano. It’s lava flows are exposed not only in the Caldera, but also at the bottom of the deepest barrancos all around the current volcano. They are thin pahoehoe flows, with some explosive layers (lapilli). It was a basaltic volcano, typical for a volcanic island.
Around 1.2 million years Garafia came to an end when a large collapse occurred. In a way this was a typical event. Slope failures are common on the western Canary Islands. The most recent one was on El Hierro, 15,000 years ago: it left a scarp 1 kilometer tall. Garafia produced several such land slides which are seen on the ocean floor. It is not clear whether they are all part of the same event or (perhaps more likely) the collapse happened in several different events. One debris flow lies off the east coast and came from somewhere above Santa Cruz. Three debris flows are seen to the southwest. The four events happened between 0.8 an 1.2 million years ago, and together deposited some 650 km3 of debris on the ocean floor.
Taburiente
On the remnant of Garafia a new volcano now began to grow. It was in pretty much the same location but extended a bit further south where the land slides had removed half of the old volcano. Eventually it fully covered both the remnants of Garafia and the older submarine (uplifted) volcano.
The walls of the Caldera the Taburiente showing the older layers. Source: The Geology of La Palma
Taburiente grew for over half a million years, between 1 million and 500,000 years ago. It reached a height of 3 km, and was 25 km in diameter. Like Garafia, it was basaltic in nature. however, during its later years the eruptions became more explosive (never devastating) and the magma became more evolved. At the same time, the eruptions began to move to the south, away from the ancient location. This formed the Cumbre Nueva ridge. By 400,000 years ago the peak was extinct but this ridge continued to be active.
History now repeated itself, as it always does. The peak of Taburiente and the side of the Cumbre Nueva collapsed into the ocean around 500,000 years ago. Compared to Garafia, this was a smaller event. The debris on the ocean floor has a volume of around 100 km3. And whereas Garafia collapsed in what may have been 3 or 4 separate events, a long time apart, Taburiente only had one. The gap it created was not yet the current Caldera de Taburiente. Erosion has deepened and widened the hole since, and also formed an erosion channel at the bottom: the Barrancos de Las Angustias. And there was new growth on the far side.
Bejenado volcano.
The collapse removed a lot of weight from the southwestern part of the edifice. This allowed new volcanic activity, from decompression and from easy access to the surface. A new volcano began to grow. This one is called Bejenado, and it forms the southern wall of the Caldera. (It is interesting and perhaps confusing that the two sides of the Caldera are from different volcanoes and have different ages.) The current Caldera looks nothing like it did after the collapse: it became enclosed only because of this new growth.
Cumbre Vieja
The new volcano filled in part of the newly formed basin. The activity did not last too long. By 150,000 years ago, all eruptions were from a new volcano, Cumbre Vieja. Unlike the previous volcanoes it formed a curved ridge. It may have formed along a radial rift zone of Taburiente, activated by the southward migration of the heat. The ridge continues into the sea, with a range of sea mounts which are equally active as the part on-land. Although Cumbre Vieja is no longer young (it has reached a height of almost 2 km), it never developed an eruptive centre. The eruptions are along the entire ridge, and are monogenetic which each one forming its own rift (normally on the flanks, at a slight angle to the ridge) and cones. Eruptions are strombolian. The lava is basaltic but more evolved lavas (phonolitic, which contain a much higher fraction of silicate) are common. (The current eruption was reported to produce tephrite, a slightly evolved version of basalt.) This volcano is very different from any of the previous four. Why that is is not clear.
On the west side the ridge has a steep edge, with a coastal platform where much of the banana plantations are. The cliff is caused by sea erosion; the platform has build up from later eruptions.
Historical eruptions occurred in 1585 (84 days), 1646 (80 days), 1677 (66 days), 1712 (56 days), 1949 (38 days) and 1971 (25 days). There is no pattern to the either the frequency or location: this volcano is all over the place. There is however a pattern of decreasing length, as if it lived of a previously formed magma reservoir – we will see whether this hold his time (in which case the eruption will be over by mid October) or not (in which case it could last until December)! There was also an eruption in the late 1400’s, around or just before the time of the Spanish settlement in 1493, but we have no historical record of this.
Events high up tend to be explosive and vents lower on the flanks tend to be effusive – this seems to hold for the current eruption as well. Eruptions often occur near older phonolitic cones. For instance, the 1677 eruption was in San Antonio volcano (a tall cone) but this cone already existed before that time.
La Palma is a fascinating place. It showcases its history well. But it is not a ‘nice’ volcano. Eruptions occur over a long area, and any one location sees lava only rarely. This encourages settlement of regions that are never safe. La Palma’s eruptions are slow and they give people time to leave. This is no Taal. But they are also destructive, as we see now. In a few months time the eruption will be over and the volcano will go to sleep for decades or centuries. But it will take people affected by the eruption a long time to recover. Those memories will not go away
Albert, September 2021
This post is almost entirely based on ‘The Geology of La Palma’ by Valentin Troll and Juan Carlos Carracedo, published as a chapter in the book The Geology of the Canary Islands’ (2001).
To end this post, I am reproducing a very useful overview made on Dec 21 by VC commenter Oliver:
To keep the overview, here is a summary of the previous events and facts of the eruption on La Palma:
– The eruption began on 09/19/2021 at 3:12 pm (local time) on the lower western flank of the “Cumbre Vieja” in the area of the “Cabeza de Vaca” and just above the first houses of the village “El Paraiso”.
– Two eruptive fissures developed, each approx. 200 m long and running in a north-north/westerly direction. On the evening of September 19th, up to 11 vents were active at the same time. This released lava fountains that were several hundred meters high. The VAAC detected volcanic ash at an altitude of 3000 m. There were also some lightning.
– The released lava was relatively viscous and cold (approx. 1075 ° C) and steep cinder cones quickly developed around the active chimneys. An Aa lava flow was formed, the front of which was initially up to 15 m high, but later mostly reached a thickness of up to 6 m.
– The lava flow crossed the LP-212 road, moved at about 700 m per hour in a westerly direction into the area just north of “Monte Rajada” and grazed the center of the village of “El Paraiso”, but already destroyed numerous houses.
– On September 20, the lava flow moved further west along the “Camino el Pastelero” street and destroyed other buildings in the process. However, the flow was getting slower and slower. Since there are numerous cisterns and small canals in the area (for the the banana plantations on the coast), there were also some phreatic explosions and the generation of steam fountains, which also led to false reports about the opening of new vents in this area.
– The seismic activity decreased significantly after the eruption started.
– On 09/20/20201, eruptive activity was concentrated in a vent that had developed at the northern end of the eruptive fissure. The largest cinder cone had developed there as a result of ongoing Strombolian activity.
– On the evening of September 20, new vents opened about 900 m below (northwest) of the main cone (below the LP-212 road) at around 9:30 p.m. At the same time there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 3.8. At least three effusive vents were active. They showed wild spattering and released less viscous lava than before. This led to the evacuation of parts of the village “Tacande”.
– The new vents produced a second lava flow. This moved in a west to south-west direction and was observed on September 21 south of the industrial area “Punto Limpio”, where it came relatively close to the main lava flow or even united with it.
– On the morning of 09/21/2021, the front of the main lava flow was just north of the center of the village “Todoque” and moved very slow. There were 183 houses destroyed and 106 acres of land covered with lava. 6000 people were evacuated.
– The sulfur dioxide emissions were determined on September 21, 2021 at 10,000 tons per day and had increased compared to the previous day (approx. 7,000 tons).
– On the afternoon of 09/21/2021, the tremor, which had decreased slightly after the onset of the eruption, increased significantly and remained high in the evening.
– The GPS stations in the west / southwest of the island recorded a further uplift of the area on September 21, 2021 despite the ongoing eruption. Overall, a maximum lift of 25 centimeters was determined.
– On the evening of September 21, the main vent produced sustained strombolian explosions or generated a lava fountain. The height of the fountain was roughly estimated by observers at 400 – 500 m.
– On the evening of 09/21/2021 at around 8:00 p.m. (local time), a new vent that had developed on the western flank of the main cone was visible. There were individual strombolian explosions there, as well as the release of a viscous lava flow. The front of this flow was moving in a westerly direction.
– On the evening of 09/21/2021, the main stream came closer and closer to the center of “Todoque” and threatened to block the important LP 213 road. This leads down to the coast to the towns of “Puerto Naos” and “La Bombilla”, which have already been evacuated, as well as the Hotel “Sol” near the beach of Puerto Naos, where 500 tourists were.
I have compiled this information from various websites and this blog. Main sources:
https://news.la-palma-aktuell.de
https://emergency.copernicus.eu
This summary is certainly not complete and is not free from errors. But I hope it helps to keep track of the events.
Oliver
View from Copernicus of the lava flows.
https://twitter.com/FronteraSpacial/status/1441826214444822532?fbclid=IwAR0N0AjGkQNXgJVpiwRiwnKP_YdS8O-Lnod7AGbATwJv655E4O9VpMetR_0
That is most interesting. It shows that the new lava flows either (1) into the southern branch and is active there at the advancing western end or (2) into (or onto?) the northern branch, ultimately threatrening Todoque again. Also the various ‘insulae’ in the lava field are not save yet.
Source: https://www.copernicus.eu/en/media/image-day
While chomping at the bit for the lava to reach the sea and provide its ocean entry entertainment, let us not overlook the terrain which it is going to lay ruin to and render uninhabitable for decades. That map is clear to that effect.
Map of the dispersal of the Sulphur cloud.
https://twitter.com/SpaceToday1/status/1441853526632800257?fbclid=IwAR0dbtFMWorahqVakxBwNKpGjMcDBysKiLCDha8jybgrMrAwW9ss8z_hId0
Looks like eruption increased again
At 06:14:40 I glanced at the eruption on https://youtu.be/p0KRg8CiJag but was surprised to see hundreds of glowing light blue balls raining down and settling on the cones. I timed several and they burned for about 21 secs before extinguishing. Is the volcano vents spewing sulfur?
I have been watching the eruption since 04:40 and it has been spewing these balls since then,
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UD3bdmw7e9C43__4xPV3n84knbDantis/view?usp=sharing
SO2 in the air making them appear blue?
Partial melting is small in Canaries mantle and this magma came from great depths.
Is there any chance that Nephelinite magma will erupt soon? But that magma is produced by souch small melt rates .. it rarely produce any large eruptions
Timelapse of the partial collapse of volcano cone
https://twitter.com/FernandoMadridd/status/1441857698471895040
Wow that was amazing. Just catching up so many thanks for posting. Now I can understand what is happening currently.
📍Lava slows down its speed
📍 In the crater there are at least three simultaneous emission points and the two points that appeared on Friday have merged into a single emission point
According to last update
@PresiCan
Any up to date ideas/maps on lava progression? How’s the church by the roundabout in Todoque?
(and btw, that sulphur cloud over the Med coast of France, anyone know how high it is, possible health effects etc? Or will it just mean slightly more acid rain?)
See the Sentinel image above, Hugh. Regarding the church: That is a secret.
Lughduniense and Albert stated earlier that the church wasn’t spared, unfortunately.
Here is the latest rendering from the Copernicus page, this time with an additional indication of the area with deposits.
Thank you – interesting, because in that photo the non-recent lava area is still quite dark, all the way down to the sea and cutting across the old cone near the sea at La Laguna, whereas on Bing maps aerial photo it looks green. Was that picture taken at wavelengths which show an old lava field?
Not sure if I understand what you say. The image shows the current lava field (I colored the area in dark brown) and the area where there is to be found ash/tephra etc. from the current eruption (I colored that violet). Or do you refer to the 1949 flow?
Ah, I see, sorry. The dark area is the ash/tephra fall area. Thank you.
Now all I have to do is copy the bing map, mark the church, and overlay it on the Copernicus image!
It’s still there as of this morning I think, now I’ve tried twitter search for “iglesia de todoque”
We might get close to another episode at Fagradalshraun. The low frequency band gets a bit spiky again, just like last time.
I meant the blue high frequency band :’). Amount of HF-peaks start to rise. Peak-pressure-quakes in a chamber?
Side vent is really going at it, is there any data on the eruption rate? The lava is being ejected onto the side of the cone and is flowing down, spatter fed flow, that is a sign of high fluidity, it is probably not a lot higher than the stuff in Iceland now, would probably form pahoehoe if the flow was more gentle.
It is incredible how even this runny magma still explodes at the main vent, there must be very high water content in the magma, the amount of steam blowing away is almost like it is erupting in fog.
This must have been what Tarawera looked like in its eruption, gigantic fountains, too tall to make lava flows upon landing. The lava there was a lot hotter though.
This lava kind of looks like Etnas and also Nyiragongos effusive vents ..
Quite fluid But also kind of little dark in daylight .. like dark orange and steamy
This is Basanite thats blasting out
Yes, in those cases too there is a lot of steam at effusive vents, alkaline basalt must have a lot more water in it than tholeiite basalt. I wonder if that still applies at alkaline old plume volcanoes, like at Mauna Kea, or if this is some other effect.
There may or may not also be another similar effusive vent lower down on the volcano too, next to Montana Rajada, the prominent old cone west of the eruption. It showed up yesterday, and on a timelapse of the cone sliding down there was briefly a shot of a lot of fluid lava in that area.
Actually that timelapse is linked by Luis further up.
If this vent keeps doing its thing .. we will then have an Ocean Entry soon.. Aa lava falling over the 100 meter tall seacliff ..very steamy it will be
In my post about the Hawaiian Islands and their chemistry I mentioned how alkaline magmas could actually come from tholeiitic magmas like those of mid-ocean ridges. They would be created by pyroxene crystallization of the magma. There are certain elements that do not join the crystalline structures of the minerals that precipitate from the magma. For example potassium, hydrogen, sulphur or carbon I think all of them are incompatible, so do not enter the crystals. They go in the residual melt. What we call alkaline are the magmas that have more potassium, (and sodium which does join the crystals).
So if following the model of a tholeiitic magma origin then as the magma crystallizes it would build up potassium and other incompatible elements including sulphur, hydrogen and carbon. So it becomes more gassy. In this model the amount of gas should be proportional to the amount of potassium. Ultrapotassic mafic volcanoes like Vesuvius or Nyiragongo have very fluid lavas, yet have a very steep, stratovolcano-like profile. Vesuvius does gigantic fountains that constructed its cone, Nyiragongo at some point probably did too, before developing an efficiently degassing lava lake conduit.
La Palma is highly potassic too, not as much as Nyiragongo, but much more than Fragradalsfjall and Kilauea. Despite the viscosity not being way too different it can be appreciated that the explosivity of Cumbre Vieja is far greater. I would blame it on a high gas content.
Every single text book says plinian eruptions are viscous and silicic magmas, and yet the greatest irony is Pliny himself was observing a mafic eruption… Watching La Palma now though it is easy to see how even fluid lava can explode if the gas content is high.
Tarawera must have been just like this but 1000x the eruption rate and way hotter, curtain of fire really doesnt do that justice, wall of hell might be better…
Yes, this eruption has changed the way I look at potassic volcanoes, it also helps understand how water-rich basalts from subduction zones, like those of Tarawera, are so explosive. And also why normal tholeiite basalts are so peaceful in comparison.
Chad
Then Tarawera is Jesper stuff : )
But the Only Current volcanoes and lava flows that is in my proportions is the Giants of IO
I cannot wait To buy an house in Pele Patera.. a huge churned up lava lake Thats the size of entire Teneriffe Island!
Jesperian Traps is my goal
The TVZ is basically Iceland with more rhyolite. It might seem silicic but that is surficial, it is only because rhyolite is less dense that it erupts so much. Underneath it is a basaltic rift zone, one of comparable power to Iceland, tholeiite basalt. The subduction zone here is dying, its only contribution is a very exaggerated water content for such a magma type.
Tarawera might also be transitioning to a basaltic state or has already done so. The eruption in 1310 was a standard explosive eruption for this area, but had a much smaller effusive dome volume than its eruptions in the Pleistocene or the neighboring Holocene eruptions at Haroharo, and 1886 was entirely basaltic. It is becoming the Hekla of the south.
I like your point on the high water content of the magma! It has struck me the amount of water vapour emitting from the vent- yet no one has mentioned it! There must be something about the geology of La Palma to allow the water to collect to do what it is doing in the current eruption.I mean is it a honeycombed full of pockets of collected rain water?I may be way off track, if so ignore this.
The La Palma camera is so zoomed in I can almost make out the molecules in the lava.
Wish the operator would pull it back a bit.
Has this interesting Drone Footage been posted here? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoZA0FqCwEM
Apols if I duplicate.
This is from a bit further up if it helps
deleted on request by commented
posted twice somehow please delete
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p0KRg8CiJag&feature=emb_title
Hawaiian activity now .. But just not as fluid as Hawaii .. I like How it emerges dark orange fluid and turns dark but still plastic and fluid
Perhaps fresher stuff is emerging now
From the dark orange appearance at daylight I estimate the temperature to be about 1150 K (about 900 °C) at maximum near the effusive vent.
I guess then we must not judge the temperature from a night view. That would make for 1200 to 1400 K depending on which live stream we’re looking at, which obviously seems too hot.
Any official figures?
It looks alot like ”Etnas Hawaiian Style” the fluid spattering near SEC before a paroxysm
This lava is not at all as hot and fluid as fagradalshraun, but its very low in sillica content
Useful drone video of the situation at the church. I can’t work out where all this new lava is going, is it just piling up?
https://www.telecinco.es/informativos/nacional/todoque-alberto-hernandez-esperanza-iglesia-cura-volcan-la-palma_18_3208020310.html
And drone video of the vent
https://www.telecinco.es/informativos/sociedad/dron-suicida-ume-entra-entranas-volcan-imagenes-espectaculares-erupcion_18_3207500388.html
The drone video showing the church is a least 36 hours out of date as 24 hours ago I saw a video of the lava piled up almost to the top of the new building, but at that time the church was untouched by lava. Unless it changes course there is a very good chance the lava will not touch the church as to the left and ahead of the church (as seen from the approaching lava) the land slopes quite steeply. It is always sad when historic buildings get destroyed but so far it was untouched last night.
RE:”It is always sad when historic buildings get destroyed but so far it was untouched last night.”
True. However, if the church is spared, it will be interesting to see what the locals make of it and what folkloric ceremonial remembrance will become embraced within the island’s cultural history, as elsewhere in the past.
Sadly the church was not spared.
Agree…as I have observed/
https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1442082260711317505
Updated information: deformation recorded by the Canary Islands Geodetic Network over the last 24 hours shows deflation, indicating a decrease in pressure within the Cumbre Vieja magmatic system.
Then this eruption will be over soon luckly for them
It won’t last as long as Fagradalsfjall. But La Palma has had a tendency that the early vents stop for a while, and a bit later another vent erupts along the rift. There may be more episodes to come. But the inhabitants will be hoping it doesn’t.
Is Fagradalsfjall finished? Or just sleeping in?
GPS
Some small rock falls in Tazacorte
https://twitter.com/VolcansCanarias/status/1442100951796572161
https://twitter.com/RTVCes/status/1442105835828641792
https://twitter.com/VolcansCanarias/status/1442100951796572161
Indeed caution is needed. The cliff rockfall will have been caused by the quakes opening pre-existing cracks in the cliffs but so far not by lava.
The cliffs there are created by sea erosion. Elsewhere the steep slope is kept away from the sea by the plains (location of towns and banana plantation) but where there are no plains, the sea undermines the slopes and creates the cliffs. So this collapse is really the fault of the sea. The coastal plain is created by lava flows, and they absent in places which the lava more rarely reaches.
There are some cracks appearing in the road Puerto Naos
https://mobile.twitter.com/PalmaCorrupcion/status/1442092638086258689?s=20&fbclid=IwAR0QmjkWXotYhHWkt0TvkRlLU6mvwyvaS3GyElXKmjVi8IjnG9TNw3UzGO4
seen a video where they were there already, i doubt it is authentic
Some have commented that these cracks are not new they were already there from when it does not say.
https://mobile.twitter.com/panikeroj/status/1442105192913072137
And there’s an image with the tweet of the same spot from Google prior to the eruption showing the same cracks.
Whoever is taking the photo and being worried clearly has never visited the UK. If you want roads with cracks, holes, sinkholes and canyons in them – here is the place to come. I’ve had whole tyres ripped off on main roads.
Our home town’s main road collapsed outside Boots the Chemist earlier in the year.
Haha Clive, I was thinking exactly the same thing. The cracks in my garden from the summer drought are big enough to put my whole hand down. Dont live where there is brick earth if you want a nice garden. Also I had a tyre split last summer after hitting a pothole. UK roads in some areas are only fit for tanks to drive along.
Another Senitinel satellite image that shows what could be seen already on the drone images: The southern flow has a more brownish appearance.
Source: https://apps.sentinel-hub.com
Is it still moving?
Coud be materials from inside the cinder cone too
Is the side vent still feeding the lava flows?
The main vent seems mostly to do tephra and pyroclasts these days and not much lava flow.. perhaps its feeding the Brown flow
Side vents view seems a main one which we see in the livestreams and a more viscous one oozing under the rubble
Why does the main vent have pyroclastic eruptions and is the side vent emitting lava quietly like Bob of Fagradalsfjall did?
Source from which this screenshot has been taken, is at https://youtu.be/3s25kYz5Jz0
Whoever is taking the photo and being worried clearly has never visited the UK. If you want roads with cracks, holes, sinkholes and canyons in them – here is the place to come. I’ve had whole tyres ripped off on main roads.
Our home town’s main road collapsed outside Boots the Chemist earlier in the year.
(PS Dragons, please delete the broken version of this that will be by the empty pack of custard creams in the dungeon…)
https://twitter.com/seismowaves/status/1442125432510423040
-Current seismicity is deeper and closer to the ridge.
-The deformation has been stable for several days.
-Emission of SO2 is estimated at 25,000 tons per day but the air quality is good and does not present a risk to the population.
Incredible lava fountain…
https://twitter.com/IGNSpain/status/1442116181809319941
Is it the visibility/air quality that’s making picture quality relatively poor, or is dust getting on the lenses as seen often in Iceland?
A couple of mornings ago pictures were really crisp, now they all look as if there’s fog, or “vog”.
https://twitter.com/AT_Brif/status/1442142988155686914
eruption few time ago
View of the Cumbre Vieja eruption from the International Space Station:
included in a short article about the eruption.
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/148875/cumbre-vieja-lights-up-the-night
Grimsvötn now looks to be one big quake from the 2004 CSM eruption start. Not saying that it will be tomorrow or anything but it’s no doubt getting closer.
And now that I’ve written this, it will probably wait a year or more…
Note that the curve includes one large quake which was not on the Grimsvotn system. So the actual level is still a bit below the line. But going up
So the line about it waiting one more year is probably true 😉
Could be. That is how long it took in 2011 from this point. 2004 was much faster, but the run-up so far has been twice as slow as in 2011. Pick your choice: November, summer next year or 2023?
Nyiragongo’s laval lake has reappeared.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210926-new-lava-lake-lets-dr-congo-volcano-breathe-experts-say
Will be fun to see How the New lava lake looks like! But probaly very similar to 2003
Now We haves To wait maybe 20 years again for it to grow high enough to drain by its own pressures
Nyiragongo probaly does not have a huge supply, Its just very open
We will see How big this open lava lake will become
Judging from some of the plant life I’ve seen in the various videos this might not be (too) much of a concern…..
Is there a “rainy season” on this island? If so, the havoc that might ensue, due to the ash fall, may add much more misery to the population via “mud” slides and further damage/destruction to homes/businesses?
I hope not 🙁
Sat image of lava flow
https://twitter.com/annamaria_84/status/1442166921722531842
Main vent lava flow viscous and slow as usual
https://twitter.com/IGNSpain/status/1442120181103448064
Very very Viscous! Despite being low sillica alkaline basalt
This is so Viscous that it almost looks like an Andesite flow .. but andesite flows are more blocky and grey than rusty red rubble
even the more effusive vent quickly turns into a alow aa flow
It is very steep slopes, just like how the lava on Kilauea turned to a’a on the pali, that is happening here too. It is probably also the high effusion rate, above 10m3/s, turning it to a’a.
The latest article in the newspaper “El Time” reports that the Todoque Church and the Health Center have fallen. At least that’s what the Google translation gives me. The lava flow that had stopped in Todoque for a few days is definitely in motion again, as a video of the article shows.
Link El Time:
https://eltime.es/isla-bonita/35578-la-colada-principal-recibe-lava-nueva-y-avanza-por-el-corazon-de-todoque.html
I fear that this is indeed true.
🙁
The church of Todoque is gone…
https://twitter.com/RTVCes/status/1442172715767586820
This is very sad news for those people. Thogether with the buildings next to the church (community center, bars) this was the heart of Todoque. The flow is on the move again and now more houses are in danger.
Hoped and spoke too soon, did I.
My God this is soo sad! The cemitery was hit too?
Whats feeding this flow? Have the main vent began to produce more lava flow friendly spatter? Denser fountains
Or is it a kind of lava dam that broke?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WXTexOtzz5E
Livestream of the moving Aa
Here are live streams and still cams (slideshow) along with seismic charts
https://eruption.acme.to/la_palma.php
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLIgawuber4
view from drone says its live, just nevermind the music xd
v
Still doing strombolian Viscous stuff
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p0KRg8CiJag&feature=emb_title
Livestream
📍569 buildings affected, 514 destroyed and the other 55 damaged
📍 232.2 ha of lava flows
📍 20.5km of road affected, 18.1km destroyed
The La Palma vent looks a bit sluggish at the moment (22:50 local time).
I see that. Had to happen sooner or later, and while the lava vent is more active, once can’t say that it’s taken up the slack. Interesting.
I supouse the lava front has near two kilometers from sea, with the todoque mountain turn. Not sure, but I think tomorrow can be reache the sea.
1.6 km from the sea at 8:15pm and about to enter Tazacorte.
Source: https://www.eltime.es/isla-bonita/35579-la-lava-a-punto-de-entrar-por-el-sur-de-tazacorte.html
Can’t find anything more recent.
Think people are being confined to their homes with effect from 11: 30pm 26.09.2021 in San Borondón, Marina Alya, Marina Baja and La Condesa, due to risk of gas emissions when lava reaches the sea, if Google translate has got it right?
The eruption seems rather ashy today.
This appears to be a fake or some kind of hijack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQgUnrhP3WY
About the Iceland volcano.
It appears on the main feed page a lot of us have been using: https://eruption.acme.to/
I have been noticing this and it seems to be on the increase. Who would know that the active images was taken about 6-7 weeks earlier?
It’s not a fake; the upper video states that it is from 50 days ago. The lower video is live.
Fagradalshraun is ramping up again.
The drumplot seems to show a lot more tremor (or something) than it has since the last active phase (it’s currently showing quite a lot for the last 24 hours), though the faf does not seem to have changed much. My current guess is this might be wind noise, *if* it’s very windy there, and *if* this is how high winds show in the drumplot (I am very unsure of that).
And now the levels are increasing again as well. The volcano has made a couple of tries earlier but without any success, and here comes another try.
I don’t think it is wind, but I am not sure it will succed this time either. The spikes in the tremor is indicating that it is not wind.
Jan, I think you are most likely right. I now can see the RUV cam of the cone, and it does not look particularly windy. I also see a few earthquakes in the immediate vicinity of the cone.
Gutntog seems to have acquired a decent drone. If someone could just press the smooth movements setting that would be just great. Knthxbye
I see the en.as.com live steam is no longer available alas.
2021-09-27 06:37:43.2
07min ago
35.14 N 25.28 E 0 4.8 CRETE, GREECE
2021-09-27 06:36:21.9
2021-09-27 06:17:22.2
27min ago
35.11 N 25.22 E 10 6.0 CRETE, GREECE
A lot of quakes again in La Palma all of them deep quakes, and volcanic tremor get very irregular but slow down…
No visible eruption now…
https://twitter.com/IGeociencias/status/1442391042913755141
All peaceful, just a bit of smoke rising. Pity about the church, the stop was just too late. I was hoping they could have diverted the lava, maybe cooling one side with hoses as in Westmann Islands 1973.
Ey up! The smoke is increasing, thick and black. This isn’t all over yet.
Lava is less than 1Km from coast
https://twitter.com/RTVCes/status/1442392788230975489
OSM has been updated and shows the lava stream now proceeding west of Todoque. Unfortunately there is a large settlement of holiday homes in its way.
Source: https://www.openstreetmap.org
Large and shallow earthquake in Crete. Away from cities ad no report of damage yet. But large enough that damage would be expected
“Considerable” damage and one person killed, according to https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/earthquake-magnitude-56-strikes-crete-greece-emsc-2021-09-27/
Have the La Palma eruption stopped now?
Give me information
We don’t know but the tremor stopped quite suddenly. It might be the end of this vent (or not) but it is probably not the end of the eruption
If it relocates to an entirely new central cone that will be a first for the historic period. Most if not all the historical eruptions have had flank vents but those originated from the first vent, which formed the cone. I would expect further activity to be at the location of the existing cone, or close to it.
Then again most eruptions dont actually stop at all until the real end, but only a week seems far too short for where this is, where every other eruption has gone a month or more. I fear after a few days it will resume but with abundant fluid lava, much faster flows.
I like your take- re-charging most likely will happen.
It is common for La Palma eruptions to create another vent some distance away from the original one. Hector also refers to this for the 1949 eruption here the vent moved by 3 km mid-eruption and later a third vent opened half a kilometer from the first one. That kind of change is usual for eruptions here. Not a first by any means, and it should not be taken for granted that it won’t happen now.
I wanted an ocean entry!
But this is a very weak hotspot compared To the behemoth that is Hawaii
And nothing compared to IO of course that haves 1200 km long lava flows
But we will see what happens
The people whose houses are between the lava and the ocean would prefer that the entry does not happen. Do be aware that what you want has consequences for them. Easy to forget for us – we are not just spectators cheering the lava on, but we are involved with a disaster. Sharing information is important, as is trying to make reasonable predictions on what may happen. Excitement is also natural. But don’t forget the people.
Ditto on remembering who the victims are.
Albert! : )
Juno will soon fly by IO
How much basaltic lava have flowed out on IO s surface in the last 24 years since 1997?
I wonder How large Amirani Lava flow is today ..
Lava thickness map:
https://twitter.com/BelartJoaquin/status/1442400023405215747
The deep quakes in La Palma continue…
This is the bigest one…
3.2 mbLg NW FUENCALIENTE DE LA PALMA.IL
2021/09/27 06:05:55
10
https://twitter.com/RTVCes/status/1442409234184953861
Is the mountain still deflating?