LA PALMA UPDATE: More explosive eruptions and a 6km high volcanic plume

Late yesterday afternoon and evening, there were a series of powerful explosions in the volcano in La Palma reported by the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcán). The three main ones, which were felt by the public in the west of the island, were at 5.20pm, 8.30pm, and 10.28pm, as the volcano has changed its ‘eruptive phase’.

Involcan scientists say that the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which first erupted on Sunday, has changed its evolution and has entered a visibly more explosive phase expelling magma with greater force from the Cabeza de Vaca vent, causing a plume of gases and ash that has reached a height of 6,000 metres.

Due to the change in the direction of the wind, ashes appeared for the first time in Santa Cruz de La Palma yesterday, but Involcan also revealed that they have already reached the north of Tenerife.

These latest known explosions is enforced by the latest information provided by María José Blanco, director of the National Geographic Institute (IGN), who explained after the meeting of the Committee of the Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca), that the slowdown of the seismic activity, does not imply that the eruptive process has decreased.

Blanco said: “the seismicity is at a lower level than we’ve seen, but has registered signs of explosive phenomena more intense than those of previous days.”

The slowdown in the advancement of the lava flows, which at some points reaches heights of twelve metres, is due to the fact that it finds it increasingly more difficult to flow further from the cone, as it loses temperature and starts to cool on the surface, and because it has to move the large amount of molten rock already deposited. However, even crawling slowly it still moves forward causing more damage and now covers an area of 180 hectares (450 football pitches) and has destroyed 390 buildings, 40 of which were in the last 24 hours.

Blanco explained that the centre of lava emission "remains the same", that the deformations of the surface "has maintained a stable speed" and that the rate of entry of magma from the crust to the reservoir of the volcano, approximately 26 million cubic meters, and the output to the surface is the same.