The volcanic eruption of La Palma could last "several weeks, if not a few months", according to the coordinator of the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, Nemesio Pérez.
The duration of the eruption will depend, according to Pérez, on the amount of magma that has accumulated in the volcano's "reservoir". "The bag that may be three or five kilometers deep is connected to another bag 20 or 30 kilometers deep, so the feedback from the deeper one to the shallower one could cause the eruption to lengthen," added the coordinator of the Volcanological Institute.
He also explained that to predict the end of this episode it is important to study the sulfur dioxide emissions that are recorded.
"On the first day we calculated between 6,000 and 9,000 tons, a reasonable amount, we have seen larger ones, and a downward trend will be indicative that the eruption is decreasing; when 48 hours pass without any sulfur dioxide emissions, we can consider it finished," said Nemesio Pérez.
Regarding the advance of the lava flows, he admitted that the route of the same can be predicted and that, therefore, they should not generate "loss of human lives", although he acknowledged that they will destroy "everything that does not move".
"It is a bittersweet feeling, because it is a spectacle of nature without comparison, but very sad because the people who have worked all their lives are going to see how the lava flow is going to destroy everything", he acknowledged.
He also doubted that the eruption could change the orography of La Palma. "The island has been made of thousands of volcanic eruptions, here what is going to be added is a little more layer, the only thing is that if the lava flows reach the sea, the island could extend a few more square meters," he stressed
