The technical director of Pevolca, Miguel Ángel Morcuende, has confirmed that the activity of the La Palma volcano "remains stable and is not causing further damage", as the lava flows continue to run along the same channels towards the sea. However, he warned that there is still a "powerful" emission of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in the plume, which does not allow predicting the end of the eruption in the short term.
Morcuende indicated in a press conference that we could already speak of "certain stability" of the situation, although "being as prudent as possible", since "we are facing a changing reality". In this sense, he pointed out that several hours have passed in which the behavior of the volcano maintains its variables "constant" and "continues its path where it is doing it". "Hopefully we can continue on this path of stabilization and the volcano will continue on a path that does not harm us more," he added.
Morcuende stressed that at the moment there is only one flow flowing fluidly from the main cone to the sea. In addition, the existence of "a lava tube that allows a direct connection between the emitting center and the sea" has been confirmed, which ensures that "we do not have more widening problems" of the flow.
He reported that the flow that ran north of the Todoque mountain had a "small attempt" to reactivate yesterday, but in the end it stopped again. Something similar happened in the area closest to the Camino de la Gata, where there was a thickening of the flow that also stopped in the end. These two phenomena are responsible for the slight growth of the total affected area.
Regarding the flow that arose after the collapse of a part of the volcanic cone, he explained that it has two fingers, one in Paraíso street, in the municipality of El Paso, and another on the LP-2 road. For three days "it remains stopped at the same point". In any case, the Pevolca continues to monitor in case there is a modification of the direction of the flow that may affect new locations.
On the other hand, Miguel Ángel Morcuende stressed that there has been "a slight decrease in seismicity", which is located at depths of between 10 and 15 km, and the magnitude of the tremors is also less than that recorded in previous days. Therefore, he wanted to send a message of calm again because not only has the seismicity decreased, but also the deformation of the terrain and the flows continue to run through the same place.
The technical director of Pevolca also highlighted the "very good" air quality that has existed in the last two days. However, he advanced that an worsening is expected because there will be many more suspended particles, mainly those of less than 10 microns (PM10), a situation that will affect municipalities such as Santa Cruz de La Palma, Breña Alta, Breña Baja or San Andrés y Sauces due to the expected wind variation.
