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
General curiosity question. Does anyone know what that marker or monument is that is visible in the webcam view from the observatory?
Phil R…d@mn fat fingers!
Whoops. Response to comment that wasn’t posted. Please disregard…
A swarm has started in the Kilauea rift zone. Looks interesting
Any chance of a url, its not a location I have bookmarked, one can only have so many.
This is the HVO site with links to earthquakes, GPS, etc
https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/hawaiian-volcano-observatory
Look at the cross caldera GPS, it is going to orbit. The quakes on the ERZ are pressure in the conduit, it is building again. I have been wrong a few times recently, it might all fizzle out again, but the only other time in the last year with an inflationary signal this strong was within a month of the last eruption, and before that in April 2018… If you consider the intrusion a month ago then this could very well be the breaking point.
Seems Pele is jealous of the attention elsewhere.
Somewhere something will have to give,
3.3 mbLg NE FUENCALIENTE DE LA PALMA.IL
2021/09/29 10:13:58
11
https://youtu.be/e_y5-zW2AO0 Is a drone view of the lava entry into the sea
Very violent explosions with black smoke everywere in La Palma now…
Keilir swarm continues. Now with a star:
Wednesday
29.09.2021 11:05:01 63.935 -22.181 6.4 km 3.5 99.0 0.8 km SSW of Keilir
Most of that activity is around 6km down. I’m guessing the intrusion is trying to surface.
But the signals are purely rock cracking. No signs of magma or fluids on the move.
Yet…
See this report: https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/09/29/ekki-utilokad-ad-kvika-se-a-hreyfingu-vid-keili
Via Giggle the headline reads “It is not excluded that magma is moving at Keilir”, but the body of the article is seems more circumspect:
And from it:
Kristín points out that it has happened before that the eruption activity has subsided, but that the break now is the longest. “The question is whether the magma is looking for new ways to get up.”
So you would not be surprised if a fire broke out somewhere near Keilir? “I think this is a scenario that we seriously need to consider.”
Scientists have not seen any signs of overheating at Keilir. “But of course we know that this corridor was formed there, so the area has expanded a lot, so this is one scenario that is not inconceivable, but it may also be that these are some kind of consequences of these great movements that have taken place there.”
Thanks for finding that!
Yes, it seems the position is “we do not know yet”. My personal feeling is that the intrusion is looking for a way up to the surface. Fagradalir may have become blocked deep down? Or there is a new pulse of magma coming in from the north. We do not know.
It will be very interesting to see if anything happens.
The tremor plot looks funny while the weather does not look particularly bad and the cone has started to smoke again. The earthquakes are rock breakers. I think the pressure in the dyke has increased a bit, being bottled up by a lid in the conduit. It is trying to find a way out. A bit deep to go for the Keilir route. More likely is that lid under the cone will surrender. And perhaps none of this will happen and the eruption has ended. But I would give it a better than 50/50 chance that there is another episode to come. Wouldn’t put any money on it though.
Yup. My sense is that you have a better handle on the science than I have, but I agree with you so far as I am qualified to! Certainly, the past teaches us not to imagine that once vent 5 shuts off, everything’s gone quiet for the next 750 years!
It looks like it is the dike that is expanding north at 6km depth. It is getting closer to Keilir with a 3.0 quake 1km from keilir earlier today. This is definitely a new turn of events.
I keep thinking about what’s missing.
If it were indeed the dike extending north, then we should expect to see triggered quakes on adjacent faults towards Kleifarvatn.
Think of a line running through the tip of the dike at an angle perpendicular to the dike. Behind that line the dike is already open and stress has been released. In front of the line, the dike is trying to push the rock to the sides. This creates stress that trigger quakes on adjacent faults. We saw this very clearly during the run-up before the eruption. As soon as the dike was advancing there were triggered quakes on neighbouring faults. If the dike is advancing, why don’t we see them now? There’s no shortage of faults to trigger, since the main Reykjanes fault is intersected by the thought line.
Another interesting report this evening on RUV, covers Keilir, Brennisteinsfjall, and Askja. https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/09/29/timabil-adgaeslu-ad-fara-i-hond-vid-keili-og-oskju
My inference is that the geologists won’t be surprised if there’s an eruption at Keilir but, like Albert on the Geldingadalur eruption resuming, they’re not putting money on it.
Here’s an excerpt via Giggle:
Probably plenty of magma present
Freysteinn Sigmundsson, a geophysicist, says that a special period of care is now underway while the eruption in Fagradalsfjall is not visible.
“We know that through the eruption, the average flow or magma flow to the surface has been relatively similar, although there are fluctuations and the eruption stops and such, but on average this is about 10 cubic meters per second of magma that has appeared there. Nothing possible. It tells us that the pressure in this magma tank that feeds this scenario has probably not abated. There is probably magma, some instability or difficulty in bringing it to the surface and therefore, when there is seismic activity, the possibility cannot be ruled out that magma is trying to find new ways. “Says Freysteinn.
He says it is likely that if it starts erupting in a new place, it will be close to Keilir. That area is connected to the magma tunnel under the volcano at Fagradalsfjall. At the bottom of the magma chamber there seems to be some kind of weakness where the magma manages to penetrate.
“I would say that this area is most likely, although of course this scenario can only fade away. This could also be a definite end to volcanic activity when seismic activity picks up like this. We have always said that we should look at the Reykjanes peninsula as a whole. That there may be metabolism over a larger area. We just need to be careful. If this starts elsewhere on the peninsula, then it is not necessarily related to this magma unit that we have been tapping off, but we believe that there may be magma elsewhere under the peninsula. “Says Freysteinn.
How can one tell? What Kind oft signal would a slow-moving, non-degassing Magma movement show?
IMO Keilir; a star 6.4 km 3.5
https://skjalftalisa.vedur.is/#/page/map shows quakes getting bigger as they head for keilir
This is visualization of the dike/magma is likely still valid:
– https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/fagradalsfjall/news/124142/Fagradalsfjall-volcano-update-Geophysical-survey-leads-to-visualization-of-magma-chamber-under-Reykj.html
Sept 27th look into La Palma crater during quiet time https://youtu.be/MoYhnZVKcpw
Looks like La Palma is spewing out quite a lot of ash at the moment…
And lava bombs
Fascinating to see those blocks fly, the speed they move you can deduct the distance from the camera must be significant.
These are no pebbles.
But also the upward pressure from the volcano keeps them suspended in mid-air a few seconds. before gravity takes over.
Latest GPS LP03
The volcanic tremor just made a jump… another new fissure or vent on the way maby…
Looks like another Strombolian vent in between the existing Strombolian one and the current Hawaiian one.
One bit of good news – Airport re-opens
https://twitter.com/BinterCanarias/status/1443194983503237125
Google translated.
Looks life Faf is getting a bit volatile…
It’s the earthquake swarm near Keilir that shows up in the plots.
Quite a lot of ash at the moment! With this strong wind the towns at the south will have quite a bit of cleaning to do.
The strong wind is giving an exceptionally clear view of the cone at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfFj1V7l1YQright now
A question from a noob, but what causes so much ash, is it constant small explosions?
The viscosity of the magma, combined with the gas (and water vapor) contained. Less important factor is the speed that the magma moves in the conduit. The fascinating question is why two vents 50m apart, apparently erupting the same type of magma, act so differently.
Yes, I understood that as the cause of the explosions, so I guess that ash is directly a result of such explosions.
And yes, it’s fascinating to see the two vents. It’s basically a two in one package!
Video of the lava flow in the sea
https://twitter.com/involcan/status/1443238300551106565
I’m astonished how far and thick this new mass is!
Wow. Thank you for posting that, Luis.
Imagine some international mogul setting up to have an advanced bid on futures for that new ocean front property, if and when it stabilizes. On Hawaii, I’m given to understand that the new land belongs to the state, . Any idea how Spanish law applies here?
https://www.elconfidencial.com/juridico/2021-09-23/terreno-nuevo-generado-volcan-la-palma-propiedad-estado_3294107/
Everything will go to the state
RE: “Everything will go to the state…”
“Holy ‘dibs on the ball, Batman!” All the grief, aggravation, and loss notwithstanding, they got right on it, didn’t they!! I love it!!! At the end of the day, ‘the state’ should stand for ‘the people’s interest’, but hardly does.
How does it work? Is the lava sinking to the bottom of the water or does it have some floating property? It seems like a huge extrusion.
It’s lava sinking to the bottom and creating a rock bed, and new lava running over it…
Thanks, Luis. So is it a massive amount of lava or is the sea not particularly deep in that area or a combination?
probably a shallow erosive platform that was created as the sea “ate” away and created the cliff itself, maybe its running on top of that until it starts to get deeper
Yes i think that area it’s like a beach area, not deep…
https://www.opendatalapalma.es/datasets/292134379cd7474db3b081eb8430d72a_0/explore?location=28.610908%2C-17.921994%2C16.61
this gives a better look at the profile of the submerged part of the island when you zoom in
Thank you both. I’m able to make sense of it now.
Thank you Charly91. I tried to find some bathymetry earlier but couldn’t.
The lines are 1 metre apart, click on one to see the data. The shallow area grades into a steeper drop towards the depths at 15 metres.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qGIRbuoyzFU
The lava fountain of Basanite is still going
I wonder how this new land will hold up to sea-erosion. My (uneducated) guess is that it’s a solid core in a coat of rubble.
Probably also the future location of new beaches where it angles of the exisating coast.
Are the Palma beaches black sand then?
We went to Stromboli a few years ago, the black sand beaches burn your feet in summer! Lovely clear, warm sea though.
Yes, Tazacorte is a beautiful black sand beach. Not that there are many beaches on the island, that’s what saved La Palma from mass-tourism and over-developent.
If I remember correctly, the same goes for La Gomera and El Hierro (a few small black sand beaches).
The beaches will form down-stream of the longshore drift; it looks to be a south drift from the little I can see on google maps.
Edit: Being curious, I looked for the longshore drift direction, and found this:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/39666538_Beachrocks_from_the_island_of_La_Palma_Canary_Islands_Spain
So broadly, the beach materials are chemically cemented together, and have been forming intermittently for a very long time. Sea levels have somehow stayed constant over the last 1000 years. If it weren’t for this warm marine water cementation process, the beaches would be much smaller, if present at all.
RE: “Yes, Tazacorte is a beautiful black sand beach…”
What’s the nature of the surf where this ‘lava dump’ is taking place? That will be contributory to the longevity of these new deposits. I would not expect anyone seeing Namaka having at it with Pele in the La Palma culture though I dare say a die-hard volcanology enthusiast would see the wisdom of respecting that all the deities are in play at times like these.
The coast is exposed to the Atlantic surf. It needs a sharp angle or clear indent in the coast for a beach to form I think. Most existing beaches are tiny.
3.1 mbLg NE FUENCALIENTE DE LA PALMA.IL
2021/09/29 18:33:58
14
3.0 mbLg
NE FUENCALIENTE DE LA PALMA.IL
2021/09/29 19:29:23
14
+info
3.3 mbLg NE FUENCALIENTE DE LA PALMA.IL
2021/09/29 18:33:58
14
IGN have issued this statement Blanco (IGN) on the earthquakes in the South: “The volcanic system has its escape valve, it does not need another outlet”
The National Geographic Institute (IGN) insists that the seismicity that continues to be detected under the Cumbre Vieja Ridge further south of the erupting volcano is linked to the current episode. María José Blanco clarified before the doubts generated by these earthquakes concentrated in a swarm since last night that “the volcanic system that has an open escape valve (the eruption), does not have the need to look for a new way up to the earth.
lapalma #noticiaslapalma #earthquakeslapalma #volcanolasmanchas #urgencaislapalma #emergencialapalma #lavalapalma #vigilancialapalma
Maybe, maybe not. Kilauea’s eruptions go uprift, downrift, pinball back and forth. if the southern earthquakes are indeed a magma intrusion, such dikes don’t move laterally so I doubt they’d feed the current vents. Who knows! 🙂
It may not “need” it, but magma follows its own rules depending on local pressure and the hoop strength of the prevailing rock. It doesn’t care what some PR spokesperson has to say.
Kilauea didn’t “need” a new vent set in Leilani estates either.
No, it did not, it needed 21? Sarc off.
Mac
Seeing 1955 lava erupt surprised everyone, I am sure.
macusn, your point is highly valid no matter the intent.
https://twitter.com/VolcansCanarias/status/1443296241430011919
lava front view from the beach
The view right now is so like the absolutely outrageous illustrations of assorted Mediterranian volcanoes made in the past that I begin to wonder if they are not, in fact, much exaggerated.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jn4XZz9baoekeHEKKbXz2j2H_fOz65dr/view?usp=sharing
Wow! Is this not perhaps the biggest cliff fall in history! 24 hours to produce this!!!
Finally something I can enjoy with no feelings of guilt that things are being destroyed. Instead now new land is arriving.
At the very least there is now an easier way down to the beach below, once of course that the lava has cooled. As the saying goes, “If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.”
There’s a great analogue for what it will look like in the end. The headland just to the south with the Faro de la Lava lighthouse was formed by the very similar 1949 eruption. Depending on how long it lasts, we should be left with a beautiful low headland that will eventually erode into a few good beaches, probably some of the best on the island. Since Playa Nueva will probably be overrun (if it’s not already), that’ll probably be a good name for the first beach that starts to form.
Volcanoes are life-giving and creative in the longer term, at least. Fertile soils from the volcanic ash, new land formations. It is death and new life in front of our eyes; old things pass away; and all things have become new.
Good view on the La Palma TV feed just now.
By “good” of course I mean clear – not that there’s anything good about this if you happen to be a local. I hope that was obvious but just wanted to make sure 🙂
I make that, currently, four vents. (1:30am UK time – OK I should be curled up in bed with my teddy bear and softly glowing lava lamp.)
One vent of which is rather weak (second from left).
Any advance on 4 ? 🙂
New Copernicus estimate of the lava area now with sea entry and lava delta:
Comparison with Lanzarote’s huge Timanfaya lava field (the black stuff on the right):
In Lanzarote the centre was inland and took out a chunck of inhabited land. If it happened on Las Palmas it would just go into the sea and make a large lava delta, causing severe local damage, but little elsewhere.
TBH considering the worst that could have happened, the damage is relatively muted.
Taking a guess here
With all of the vents to release the gas from the magma, this will increase the amount of lava that can erupt from the effusive vent. Would this be a piece of the puzzle of why the lengths of the eruptions here are getting shorter through history. Better venting of the built up supply of magma is able to facilitate the escape of Lava until the conduit closes and we start over.
I guess you would have to go back and see if there is any data to support this.
Mac
What is interesting about the new earthquake swarm at Fagradalsfjall is that its starting point is not near where the dike was thought to be in the spring. I mapped it on an image from a post of Albert: https://imgur.com/a/Rcm3kJS. The tip of what presumably is some kind of intrusion is currently just southwest of Kelir, right near the terminous of the previous dike. However the rest is well to the south and east of the old line of action. Any guesses how it interacts with the rest of the system?
If it reaches the surface I would guess it either will be right near the current point because Keilir blocks the way or slip past just to the west.
Being a non-expert, I can’t do anything but guess how it interacts. But your observations are very astute and interesting. Thanks!
I wonder if the intrusion forms a kind of V. The main branch angling south from Keilir to Fagradalir, and another, shorter branch heading directly south from Keilir – possibly crossing to meet up with another south-west to north-east rift? After all, the whole area is being pulled apart by extensional rifting.
It will be interesting to see if anything comes of this current activity!
The ones to the east are also 1km deeper, so they may line up along a dipping plane. Unfortunately I have lost my scripts for extracting and plotting quake data. I could do it by hand, but I don’t have the time for that.
Weird signals at Kilauea, the tiltmeter is getting shaken around a lot right now., this might be it.
Immediately glances around the Kilauea webcams…
This is when we need a live streaming one!
Good luck on calling it…
There’s a pretty good swarm ongoing in the caldera.
Hmmm
USGS All Earthquakes, Past Day
113 of 382 earthquakes in map area.
Recent Kilauea quakes, might be something, might just be stress from the inflation.
2021-09-30 01:04:13 2.8 -1
2021-09-30 01:02:58 2.6 0.4
2021-09-30 00:57:04 1.7 1.9
2021-09-30 00:52:32 2.9 1.5
2021-09-30 00:49:18 2.8 5
2021-09-30 00:45:43 2.5 0.2
Alert level for Kilauea raised to Orange.
https://www.usgs.gov/volcano/volcano-updates?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=dlvrit-usgsvolcanoes#hvo
https://www.usgs.gov/media/webcams/kwcam-halema-uma-u-water-lake-and-down-dropped-block
It has started
USGS Volcanoes🌋
@USGSVolcanoes
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31s
HVO Kilauea RED/WARNING – ORANGE/WATCH status change to RED/WARNING. Kīlauea is erupting. Eruption has commenced
I see red now.
Another boring Halemaumau eruption. Could have been Iki, a ring fault, or the SWRZ, but noooooooooooo! 🙂
Vet funny Damon.
Wait a few months, this is like 1967-1968, and we both know what happened after that ended… 🙂
Totally unjustified RED/WARNING! USGS threshold for the highest alert status is far too low these days. Veniaminof 2018, Great Sitkin, Semisopochnoi, now Kilauea.
RR:”Good luck on calling it…”
Well done, ya’ll. Clive will have what to wake up to. Wonder what Albert has up his literary sleeve for us next.
Suppose it might be said that USGS/HVO is late to the party as predicted in the conversations in these pages weeks ago. My first email from them was a negative. 1.5 hours later a positive. If it had been as Damon wished, or better yet another 1924 event or worse, egg washed faces would have abounded. Folks in ‘Volcano’ should either demand better, or move out. This govt plays it too close to the vest.
Well, there was only about 1 hour of earthquakes before the eruption, which is typical of Halema’uma’u eruptions. So there is not much that HVO can do in a situation like this.
Out of pure curiosity, if we were to give this eruption vei scale, what would it be as of now?
Kilauea 0 but it nearly always will be. La Palma maybe a 2, possibly a 3 but it is by volume almost all effusive.
Well Chad- my congrats-you knew it was heading to an eruption ie: saw the signs!
I’m going to pile up some ZZZZZZZZZ’s. The magma will still be there in the morning. Ya’ll did an impressive job with your forecasting over these many weeks for all three main events currently underway.
You Mafic-Men must be soooo happy! Iceland, La palma, Etna, and now Hawaii too?! Where’s my 100,000 megaton volcanic explosion? Nowhere. I’ve had enough effusive eruptions, I want some amazing explosive eruptions… ):
Those are, thankfully, rare birds.
This time there are vents actually under the lava lake, seemingly at the very bottom in fact. It also looks like the vents opened along a line of cracks in the old lake crust, so the fissure that intruded into the lake might have a different orientation. There are vents on the side of the crater not far from the one active earlier in the year too.
If the vents are actually under the lava though then that puts the lake into the equilibrium factor of the whole magma system, where before it was not. It is currently not extremely high in elevation but could plausibly reach the elevation of 850 meters if this lasts a few months like last time, that is high enough to start getting other parts of the volcano involved. It also could turn into a conduit, in fact that is a likely case, the vent in May was not under the lake so cooled down but here it wont get that chance. Or maybe it will end in a few days, but I have my doubts personally.
How deep will the rootless lake get before getting so heavy it drains into the drift? Can a rootless lava lake be heavy enough to force itself down into the rift?
This looks alot like Halema’uma’u in 1950 s and 1960 s
No idea, it might not be a real number more how weak the surroundings are. Alae drained after only 1/3 the volume of the current lake or maybe even less. Here I expect is a way to go yet but could be a major event when it does, lets hope it is down on the southwest rift not in Puna again…
Maybe a question of semantics, but is that still a rootless lake, now?
If one or more vents opened up under the lake, it may have turned instantly into a regular lava lake.
Or, if a vent opened up half-way up the side wall between the bottom and surface of the lake, would half of it be rootless?
Really, I’m not trying to be facetious. That’s just the kind of thing I sit here pondering.
Maybe it isnt rootless now, but it was until yesterday because the source of lava originally was not actually under the lake surface. Now though it is different.
The other definition is that a true lake has convection, which will make it indefinitely stable in theory, where a rootless lake is just a lot of lava in a depression that will sit stagnant. But then if you want to do a direct comparison a real water lake is more like a stagnant lava lake than the sort of thing that existed at Kilauea before 2018.
There needs to be a better terminology for lava lakes and the various types that can happen. This lake is fed from a dike so it is similar to the December 2020 one. This type is prone to making floating islands, having dome fountains, and foundering of the crusted surface.
It is not a convecting lava lake. A convecting lava lake does not have fountains in those spots where the lava comes up, it only has some spattering in the places where the lava goes back down into the conduit. And the surface is usually too hot to make a thick crust, so foundering rarely happens.
The lava lake endmembers are stagnant vs convecting, cold vs hot. Now we have the cold stagnant type.
The lava lake before 2018 was the hot convecting type, and it was like the top of the magma chamber itself, the opening to the surface of an enormous pipe of magma.
Nyiragongo reformed its lava lake, and its of the hot open vent conduit type where magma can constantly circulate in the chamber pipes
Souch lakes Only haves milimeters thick skinn at most and that skinn is also very plastic and flexible because its hot
I wonder How large Nyiragongo New open conduit lava lake will become
Still Jupiters Moon IO is extraodinary with the open conduit lava lake in Pele Patera being 65 kilometers long and 30 kilometers wide .. perhaps a window into the moons magma ocean
And now a M3.7 adjacent to Keilir
01:52:08 63.937 -22.185 6.6 km 3.7 99.0 0.8 km SW of Keilir
The Langihryggur camera has been zoomed out and panned right a bit, so it now looks in that direction.
Yes, it’s nice to get a visual sense of the area to the NNE of the vent (and of the first snows of winter across Faxafloi). However, I think the rightmost peak is Stori-Hrutur (“Big Ram”), so Keilir is a few degrees to the east, out of shot.
Keilir quakes are getting a little shallower. They were 5-7 km to begin with and now 4-5. The advanced 3dbulge program from Bæring shows it well. https://baering.github.io/earthquakes/
Manually selecting that area in Skjálfta-Lísa and plotting time vs depth confirms a clear upwards progression. Note that I only included quakes between 4-8km to remove outliers that messed up the scale.
For me, Fagradalsfjall is out, but new fissure is possible, nearer to Keilir.
“For me, Fagradalsfjall is out.”
Don’t go breaking my heart.
Thank you Thomas Anderson & Lobster for those.
I’ve been attempting to track depth by the method of adding up the depth of the last 20 Keilar area quakes and doing an average. I did see a shallowing, but I didn’t think to throw out outliers.
Seeing it on a graph or 3d is far, far better.
I just hope it doesn’t keep heading NE up the fissure system.
Thanks very much. Shallower, and maybe more concentrated at particular times, too – though perhaps it’s too early today to tell.
The bottom of Halemaumau before today was just shy of 750 meters above sea level. The ERZ connector is open to about Makaopuhi according to quake locations, maybe to Pu’u O’o but not as much. That is only slightly higher elevation actually, so the eruption happened in Halemaumau because it was the lowest location on the open magma system but that rule might not hold after this eruption ends.
The lava lake should also be directly visible from public areas very soon, probably tomorrow.
What I want to know is when the pressure equals out if the lake stays active, I dont think we will see a big drop in the deformation because the lava isnt flowing away from the vents, it is directly connected, the same as at Kilauea Iki in its lava geyser phase. So the eruption could pause and start a lot, but will not relieve pressure, it is goign to be like the eruption in 1967, which heralded the Mauna Ulu eruptions… I am calling it now this is just the beginning of something bigger, hopefully not too far down the rift though the volcano is primed for that to happen.
Yes I’m curious as to whether we will see an eruption that starts and stops, erupting and draining lava in cycles, that could happen if the vents under the lake remain active. However some fissures opened outside the lake too.
https://www.sciencealert.com/the-largest-underwater-volcanic-eruption-ever-recorded-gave-birth-to-a-new-volcano?fbclid=IwAR0nTVXnmE7Kuv-JDzaUZNWVH1GpOsaz4L_cuUleJZyLAzsQeijWQOutXWE
This shows the totaly massive scale of the Mayotte event .. Thats many many km3 of materials emplaced, And I think its still erupting
Chad If Mayotte happened in Vatnajökull arera What woud it be like? Like Holuhraun But longer lasting?
Sad its not been submarines to this eruption
A good find for that article Jesper,
Interesting from that elevation map that it seems to have occurred in the middle of what could be a caldera? Either that or the new features summit is over what would have either been the abyssal plain that just happens to be surrounded by rises or other volcanoes.