Lava covers more than 180 hectares of the island of La Palma, destroying 390 buildings and 14 km of roads

The island's volcanic semaphore remains red, in an emergency situation

September 24 2021 (10:05 WEST)
Image of the lava's advance in La Palma
Image of the lava's advance in La Palma

The lava coming out of the 'Cumbre Vieja' volcano, in El Paso (La Palma), has covered a total of 180.1 hectares since the eruption began this Sunday, September 19, destroying 390 buildings so far, in addition to 14 kilometers of roads, according to satellite monitoring by the European Union's Copernicus program.

In this way, the lava already covers 14 more hectares than 11 hours ago, while the buildings destroyed in its path have also grown by 40 in relation to Wednesday, September 22.

Late this Thursday, the director of the National Geographic Institute (IGN) in the Canary Islands, María José Blanco, explained that the Cumbre Vieja volcano in La Palma maintains explosive phenomena, a stable speed in deformations and low-level seismicity, indicating that a lava flow has practically stopped --the one oriented further north--, while the other advances "very slowly", at about 4 meters per hour, something that she qualifies as normal as it moves away from the emission center, to which is added that it must also drag the previous material, part of it cold, and adapt to the topography of the terrain.

She added that the lava front is about 500 meters long and in some sections, 12 meters high, and the volcano's gas column reaches maximum peaks of 4,500 meters in altitude.

The Copernicus program, coordinated through the National Emergency Monitoring and Coordination Center (CENEM), has devices for monitoring and tracking national alert networks, potential risk situations, incidents and emergencies in the field of civil protection.

The island's volcanic semaphore remains red, in an emergency situation, and the eruptive process continues.

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