The National Geographic Institute (IGN) has reported that during the early hours of this morning (Tuesday) there have been more than a hundred seismic movements on La Palma, one of which has a magnitude of 3.9 and was detected in the municipality of El Paso. This earthquake, which was felt by the population at 6am, was located at a depth of just 9 kilometres. Three movements of 3.1 magnitude were also detected this morning.
These seismic movements come the day after the Canary Islands Special Plan for Civil Protection and Attention to Emergencies due to Volcanic Risk (Pevolca) activated the yellow traffic light for volcanic risk, which is the second level of alert on a scale of 4, at the Cumbra Vieja de La Palma due to the increase in activity and earthquakes.
The director of the Volcanic Surveillance Area of the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan), Luca D'Auria, explained in an interview with COPE Canarias that “La Palma is an active volcano, so sooner or later there will be an eruption, however, it could be in a week, in a month or in 50 years time, we just can’t tell yet. In the last century, there were two eruptions and, without a doubt, we must be prepared for the next one, as even though we don't know when it will happen or how intense it will be, the big increase in activity in the last few days makes the probability much, much, higher."
He added that there are not yet "many elements to make an accurate forecast in the medium or long term, we will have to wait for the next few days to see how it evolves." Although he acknowledges that "on Saturday there was a change in Cumbre Vieja that indicates a process of magmatic ascent to shallower depths compared to previous years."
Main image courtesy of Diario De Avisos
