The Steering Committee of the Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Care for Volcanic Risk (PEVOLCA) met this Monday, with the presence of the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, among other authorities, announced that the priorities are focused on guaranteeing the security perimeter and relocating the evacuated residents, counting that there are families who will lose their homes. In this sense, they indicated that on this day another 40 homes have been evicted in Tazacorte, since the lava flows enter the municipality following their path towards the sea, where it is expected to arrive tonight. The number of evacuees is around 5,500 people.
The members of the committee agreed to highlight the coordination in the PEVOLCA evacuation plan and stressed that the most important thing is that the eruption of the volcano has not caused personal injury, thanks to the anticipation provided by scientists, although material damage has occurred in houses, crops and farms. In this regard, they pointed out that the administrations will put "all the necessary means to help alleviate the consequences."
The device will be intensified during the arrival of lava to the sea, which can generate explosions and emission of harmful gases. The Maritime Captaincy has already established an exclusion perimeter by sea from the south by Punta del Pozo (Puerto Naos) to the north by Las Viñas beach (Tazacorte) and parallel to the coast half a nautical mile from the coast, while on land the security forces will prevent access.
The Steering Committee maintains the alert for forest fires, where both firefighters and forest brigades from different administrations and the UME operate, accompanying the flow and controlling the perimeter.
The Scientific Committee continues to recommend an exclusion radius of 2 kilometers around the emission centers to minimize the risk of impact of pyroclasts and exposure to gases. Citizens are also reminded that they should not approach the lava flows "due to the risk of exposure to emitted gases, possible landslides and high temperatures."
Experts reported that the eruption that began this Sunday continues to show the same eruptive fissure style, two NS aligned fissures and separated from each other by about 200 meters, with several emission points. The surface temperature of the emitted lava reaches 1113º. The formation of a main cone has been confirmed for now and the first estimates of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emission into the atmosphere by this eruptive process have been made, reaching emission rates between 6,000 and 9,000 tons per day.
Since the beginning of the eruption, a volcanic tremor signal of great amplitude has been maintained, which is recorded in all seismic stations. Since its beginning, a decrease in seismicity has been observed, although some earthquakes of magnitude lower than those observed the previous day continue to be recorded. The occurrence of felt earthquakes is not ruled out. Likewise, it is verified that the deformations continue to be registered, mainly in the area closest to the eruption, reaching a maximum accumulated deformation of 20 centimeters.
