Explosive activity at Cumbre Vieja with falling pyroclasts and volcanic bombs, La Palma
Today's activity at La Palma's Cumbre Vieja volcano, Canary Islands is explosive with falling pyroclasts and volcanic bombs, INVOLCAN reports. 1 045 buildings have been destroyed by lava since the start of the eruption.
The total area affected by lava reached 413.38 ha (1 021 acres) with a perimeter of 36.3 km (22.5 miles) and a maximum width of 1 250 m (4 101 feet) on October 5.1
The lava platform (Fajana) now occupies an area of 32.7 ha (80 acres) and it keeps increasing.
In addition, it's likely it will soon connect with the one created during the eruption in 1949, as illustrated in the image below, courtesy of Antonio Aretxabala.
Image credit: Antonio Aretxabala
El volcán de #LaPalma ha emitido ya 80 millones de metros cúbicos de lava. El magma gana 19 hectáreas al mar.
Imágenes de la plataforma de colada surgida frente a la costa, captadas la tarde de hoy, viernes 1 de octubre de 2021.
Por Manuel Nogales, investigador del @IPNA_CSIC pic.twitter.com/9AnwpkNxof— CSIC (@CSIC) October 1, 2021
Los drones de @DronSea operados por los investigadores del @ICMAN_CSIC remontan el camino del magma desde el acantilado hasta las bocas del volcán de #LaPalma. La colada ha arrasado 400 hectáreas. Los científicos estudian el avance de la colada y su impacto en el medio marino pic.twitter.com/XteWiShWQg
— CSIC (@CSIC) October 4, 2021
Several active centers are observed inside the main crater, as well as two others located on the northwest side of the cone. The partial crater collapse on October 3 located in the northwest of the side of the cone contributed to the production of very fluid lava.
The height of the gas and ash column rose to 4.5 km (14 700 feet) on October 4.
The seismicity has increased slightly and is occurring at deep levels of the Earth's crust, which suggests a new mouth could open.
Nos despedimos por hoy con estas imágenes de la #ErupcionenLaPalma de esta tarde / We say goodbye for today with these images of the #LaPalmaeruption this afternoon #LaPalma pic.twitter.com/JaK4PmUvru
— INVOLCAN (@involcan) October 3, 2021
La violenta actividad explosiva de ayer deja su huella en forma de bombas volcánicas como esta en una de nuestras zonas de trabajo / The strong explosive activity leaves its fingerprint as volcanic bombs like this in one of our work sites pic.twitter.com/ml0xXmqDv1
— INVOLCAN (@involcan) October 4, 2021
La actividad de hoy es explosiva con caída de piroclastos y bombas / Today's activity is explosive with falling pyroclasts and bombs #lapalma #erupcionlapalma #lapalmaeruption pic.twitter.com/oCOWCwruFJ
— INVOLCAN (@involcan) October 5, 2021
With only little more than two weeks of activity, the eruption is significantly bigger than the two previous eruptions on the island during the past 100 years, Dr. Tom Pfeiffer of Volcano Discovery noted.2
"It was estimated that the eruption has so far emitted 250 000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2). The plume has been hovering around the Canary Islands, North Africa, the Mediterranean, parts of it drifted over the Atlantic, even reaching the Caribbean to the west and the Arctic in the north."
References:
1 La Palma / volcanic eruption update by Departmento de Seguridad Nacional (DSN) – 06:00 UTC, October 5, 2021
2 La Palma volcano eruption already biggest on the island in more than 100 years – VD
Featured image credit: CSIC
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