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La Palma volcano (Canary Islands): likelihood of new volcanic eruption increases

Tue, 14 Sep 2021, 19:00 | BY: T
Locations of recent quakes under La Cumbre Vieja volcano (La Palma) (image: IGN))
Locations of recent quakes under La Cumbre Vieja volcano (La Palma) (image: IGN))
Vertical deformation (image: IGN)
Vertical deformation (image: IGN)
The volcanic-seismic crisis continues to evolve. During the past 24 hours, earthquakes have been moving westwards and become shallower, the National Geographic Institute (IGN) reported.
This is likely reflecting continued magma intrusion and migration under the surface, supported also by continued deformation of the surface in the same area as the quakes. In places, the ground has been uplifted by 1.5 cm (almost one inch) already. The likelihood of an eruption has thus increased and the situation is being followed closely, although it is still far from certain whether it will or not result in a new eruption of the volcano.

More than 2000 earthquakes in 4 days
Since the beginning of the seismic series at 3:18 (UTC) on Sep 11th until 8:00 a.m. local time today, 2935 earthquakes have been detected in the southern area of ​​the island of La Palma. Of these, 616 were large enough to have their epicenters and depths located. The largest quake occurred today at 06:00 a.m. with a provisional magnitude of 3.9. Anomalies in the seismic attenuation that currently exist under the island of La Palma caused the magnitude to have been overestimated, IGN reported, and revised the magnitude to only 3.5. At any rate, the larger quakes are now being frequently felt and reported by residents who are increasingly worried about the situation under their feet.

Previous news

Mon, 13 Sep 2021, 19:49

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

Updated plot of the ongoing swarm.
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. ... Read all
Mon, 13 Sep 2021, 09:31

La Palma volcano (Canary Islands): strong seismic swarm suggests magma intruding at depth

Locations of recent quakes under La Cumbre Vieja volcano (Canary Islands)
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. ... Read all
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La Palma volcano
shield volcano 2426 m
Canary Islands, 28.58°N / -17.84°W
Current status: normal or dormant (1 out of 5) La Palma volcano eruptions:
2021 (Sep - ongoing), 1971, 1949, 1712, 1677-1678, 1646, 1585
Typical eruption style
effusive
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