Canary Islands volcano about to blow...?

[tabascoboy]

La Palma volcano (Canary Islands (Spain)) activity update: Yellow alert for Cumbre Vieja declared

The strong earthquake swarm is continuing beneath Cumbre Vieja, and now PEVOLCA has raised the alert level to Yellow, citing the repeated occurance of earthquake swarms since 2017, with this one being the strongest and also the shallowest, suggesting magma is slowly rising into the edifice. Measurements of Helium-3 gas flux are also indicating this. A strong earthquake swarm started under the area of La Cumbre Vieja volcano in the southern part of the Island yesterday. So far, more than 350 tremors have been detected, including 14 quakes of magnitudes above 3.0 and 226 quakes between 2.0 and 2.9.
The strongest was a magnitude 3.4 event at 00.46 am local time this morning, which was felt by nearby residents.

La Cumbre Vieja volcano last erupted in 1971, and it is considered one of the most active volcanoes of the Canary Islands. The situation clearly merits close monitoring.

I walked around this volcano on the route that goes along the chain southwards to the coast about 15 years ago...very deep and soft black dust/sand layer below the rim

[Kawazaki]

Is this the one where half the island is predicted to fall into the ocean and send a giant tsunami to the USA?

[tabascoboy]

If the eruption is big enough, yes this is the one but no suggestion of an immediate threat.

Scientists have discovered that La Palma will collapse at the time of some future volcanic eruption on the summit of the Cumbre Vieja volcano. Eruptions on the summit occur on average every 200 years or so. The last summit eruption was in 1949, so it may be many decades before the next summit eruption takes place.

Furthermore, the collapse will not necessarily happen during the next summit eruption. It may well take five, ten or more summit eruptions before the collapse occurs. But scientists simply do not know how many eruptions it will take.

[TB63]

They tunneled into the side of it and found an impervious band of ancient lava that acts as a slip line as it's lubricated by water..
If it goes...bye bye East Coast USA...



(Checks height above sea level, 200ft..let it go....)..

[Sandstorm]

Is this the one where half the island is predicted to fall into the ocean and send a giant tsunami to the USA?

No, that’s Tenerife.

[Grandpa]

Is this the one where half the island is predicted to fall into the ocean and send a giant tsunami to the USA?

No, that’s Tenerife.

La Palma is the main risk though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vi ... ami_hazard

[Torquemada 1420]

They tunneled into the side of it and found an impervious band of ancient lava that acts as a slip line as it's lubricated by water..
If it goes...bye bye East Coast USA...



(Checks height above sea level, 200ft..let it go....)..

Expect Biden to send in the nukes against the fundamentalist volcano.

[Ali Cadoo]

There's an absolutely cracking Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant on the 2nd floor of the Centro Comercial El Muelle in Muelle Santa Catalina. I'll miss that place if the island blows.

[TB63]

Thar she blows!..

[tabascoboy]

The alert proved a good one then!

La Palma Volcano Volcanic Ash Advisory: ERUPTION AT 20210919/1410Z LAVA FOUNTAINS ONGOING. to 5000 ft (1500 m)

[Kiwias]

[tabascoboy]

That's quite some sight - and worrying for those with homes below. There have been some 5 000 evacuations and 100 homes destroyed. It looks very different to when I walked along the ridge in about 2004 and safe to say Ruta de los Vulcanes is impassable and closed for the foreseeable.

Hopefully the geologists will get useful readings from the displacement fault on the flank to see how it compares with modelling.

[fishfoodie]

Looks like they're in for a rough few months.

A surge of lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain's Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,000 people to leave the area, local authorities said today.
...

It also consumed a local primary school where 25 children were enrolled, the headmistress told Cadena Ser radio.

"Up to about two hours ago, we thought it was going to be saved, but unfortunately it has been completely engulfed. It's totally destroyed," said Angeles Nieves, her voice breaking.
...

Right now, we're watching the news and the lava is 700 metres from our home. I'm really worried because we don't know I don't know what's going to happen to it," Angie Chaux, 27, who left with her husband and three-year-old son, told AFP.

"The police gave us three minutes to get our things. It was all very fast."
...

Local officials believe the lava were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

According to Involcan, the lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000C.

Scary !

[Uncle fester]

Is this the one where half the island is predicted to fall into the ocean and send a giant tsunami to the USA?

No, that’s Tenerife.

La Palma is the main risk though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vi ... ami_hazard

Unlikely scenario.

[Grandpa]

No, that’s Tenerife.

La Palma is the main risk though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vi ... ami_hazard

Unlikely scenario.

But, but, but.. there's still a chance?

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Is this the one where half the island is predicted to fall into the ocean and send a giant tsunami to the USA?

No, that’s Tenerife.

La Palma is the main risk though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vi ... ami_hazard

That was thought to be thing, but I'd heard more recently with people who know what they're talking about actually looking into it they'd debunked the theory, essentially saying there's no fault line running deep enough to see a singular huge shift of rock into the sea, and thus nothing to cause a a giant tsunami.

[Grandpa]

No, that’s Tenerife.

La Palma is the main risk though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vi ... ami_hazard

That was thought to be thing, but I'd heard more recently with people who know what they're talking about actually looking into it they'd debunked the theory, essentially saying there's no fault line running deep enough to see a singular huge shift of rock into the sea, and thus nothing to cause a a giant tsunami.

That's what the Geography professor in Uncle Fester's post suggests... ie a possibility, but a remote one...

[lemonhead]

Stayed at a hotel that side of the island a few years back near Puerto Naos.

Lava down that slope would definitely be at a full on sprint.

[tabascoboy]

No, that’s Tenerife.

La Palma is the main risk though...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumbre_Vi ... ami_hazard

That was thought to be thing, but I'd heard more recently with people who know what they're talking about actually looking into it they'd debunked the theory, essentially saying there's no fault line running deep enough to see a singular huge shift of rock into the sea, and thus nothing to cause a a giant tsunami.

Pretty much, a vulcanologist in this this article states that it would take a simultaneous earthquake and eruption catastrophe of the proportions for which there is no known precedence in the Canary Islands, and additionally that even then any wave heights from a tsunami have been drastically miscalculated and over-egged. As I said before we should get measurements from this which will help towards further understanding more reasonable risk assessment for the area ( though you'd think a realistically small rockfall would be no more damaging than the current lava flows locally).

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/la-palma-mega ... 29848.html

I'd certainly put collision from an undetected medium - large Near Earth Object and ensuing global catastrophe as a much higher possibility!

[Sandstorm]

Globus ran up Mount Teide barefoot during an eruption.

[ScarfaceClaw]

Globus ran up Mount Teide barefoot during an eruption.

I believe the locals considered sacrificing a virgin in his honour but they couldn’t find one.

[TB63]

Globus ran up Mount Teide barefoot during an eruption.

I believe the locals considered sacrificing a virgin in his honour but they couldn’t find one.

Agnes Shufflebottom, 93, from Scunthorpe offered herself..

[tabascoboy]

Eruption continuing for a 4th day

[Plim]

Globus ran up Mount Teide barefoot during an eruption.

I believe the locals considered sacrificing a virgin in his honour but they couldn’t find one.

Agnes Shufflebottom, 93, from Scunthorpe offered herself..

Didn’t Globus decrypt the otherwise uncrackable secret message warning of the eruption on Teide, beat Bobby Fischer in a telephone chess game as he ascended the lava-engulfed slopes of the volcano, and then accept the sacrifice of Agnes Shufflebottom at his feet with dignified aplomb, witnessed by his holiday companion Dickie Jeeps?

[fishfoodie]

At last a benefit to having rising damp.

[Sandstorm]

At last a benefit to having rising damp.

“So I think we should build the house on that small hillock……”

[fishfoodie]

At last a benefit to having rising damp.

“So I think we should build the house on that small hillock……”

But just think of all that wasted money of home insurance !

[tabascoboy]

Update 25 Sept

The eruption has been relatively stable during the past 24 hours: sustained, fast-pulsating lava fountains are rising from the vent, reaching several hundred meters and generating an ash and steam column that rises near vertically to estimated 3-4 km elevation.

The fountaining is remarkably stable, although at times briefly interrupted by giant lava bubble explosions that eject glowing lava bombs in all directions to more than 1000 m distance, often showering the whole cone with red-hot lava ejecta. Some of these produce cannon-shot loud detonations with visible shock waves that are felt in many kilometers distance. Some people confused them with earthquakes.

Volcanic tremor overall is stable and still high, perhaps with a slightly decreasing overall trend. Earthquakes have mostly ceased and inflation seems to have stalled. This indicates that the eruption has likely found a stable phase.

Not much significant activity occurred at the lava flow fronts, which continue to widen the flow field and/or overlap older flows, thus thickening it.

[westport]

They reckon it will soon reach the sea and the toxic cloud is expected with everyone told to stay indoors

[TB63]

They reckon it will soon reach the sea and the toxic cloud is expected with everyone told to stay indoors

Ermmm. It's stopped...

[westport]

They reckon it will soon reach the sea and the toxic cloud is expected with everyone told to stay indoors

Ermmm. It's stopped...

Ermmm

Lava flow has slowed, the worry is that it is building up to a big blow and seismic activity has been detected.

11:27
There could be magma displacement in the lower area of the Cumbre Vieja volcano prior to a new eruption that will affect La Palma again

11:22
According to experts, this type of behavior of the volcano would indicate that another eruption is to come in the next few hours on La Palma and that it could be even more violent

11:18
LA PALMA VOLCANO | From Radio Televisión Canaria they report that new seismic activity has been detected in La Palma minutes after the eruption ceased, this time in the Fuencaliente area

11:13
Despite this slowdown in the descent of the lava towards the sea, it is assumed that in the next few hours the wash will reach the Atlantic and a dangerous chemical reaction will take place on La Palma

https://www.lavanguardia.com/natural/20 ... recto.html

[tabascoboy]

What may happen when molten lava meets the sea ( a generic description and not necessarily certain in this case)

At the encounter of the lava, with a temperature above 1.000°C, with the sea, with a temperature surrounding 20°C occurs a thermal shock that generates columns (plumes) of water vapor loaded with hydrochloric acid (HCl) as a result of significant chloride (Cl-) content in seawater. These water vapour columns, in a white colour, also contain tiny particles of volcanic glass as a result of reaction between lava and seawater.

These acidic vapour columns as a result of the generation of hydrochloric acid (HCl) pose a local - well-defined - danger to people visiting or in the coastal area where this encounter occurs between lava and sea. It is not a volcanic column or plume as energetic as it takes place in the volcanic cone where a jet of acid volcanic gas is being produced that is injected into the atmosphere with so much energy that they reach 5 km high .. Therefore, the steam columns generated by the encounter between lava and sea are less energy volcanic plumes. The wind regime in the area where these coastal volcanic plumes occur contributes to the dispersal of these columns, but the danger they represent is very local, in the environment of the area where the lava encounter with the sea occurs.

Inhalation or contact of gases and acid fluids may irritate skin, eyes and respiratory tract, and may cause respiratory difficulties, especially in people with pre-existing respiratory diseases.

[westport]

Going bananas

[westport]

[westport]

Different angle live video

[westport]

Reached the sea over night

[Enzedder]

Looks like it is ramping up a bit now

[tabascoboy]

At last a benefit to having rising damp.

That "miracle" house has now been engulfed and destroyed by the lava flow, it is - was - owned as a 2nd home by a Danish couple from Jutland.

[Enzedder]

The lava is a huge fountain this morning - awesome sight

[westport]

Volcanic eruption on La Palma intensifies as new vent and lava tongues emerge​

Authorities are concerned that the molten rock could destroy more properties if it does not follow the route of the main flow​
Sources from the Spanish Geological and Mining Institute (IGME) said today that two new lava flows had emerged from a third vent that appeared during the night. These two rivers of molten rock have appeared around 400 meters from the crater, and are very liquid, according to the National Geographic Institute (IGN).

The new vent is the third to have opened since the volcano erupted on September 19. This means that, counting the crater, there are now four sites that are emitting lava. Up until now, most of the lava has been flowing to the sea from a vent that emerged last week.

According to the CSIC, one of the new lava flows is just north of the main one, and on Friday was advancing closely alongside it towards Los Llanos de Aridane, the most populous town in La Palma.

https://english.elpais.com/spain/2021-1 ... merge.html