La Palma/Cumbre Vieja Volcano in the Canaries

[MNTornadoGuy]

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

 

[bjdeming]

Gosh, that is a HUGE gas flow rate (high in sulfur, too, per TROPOMI). Very impressive shock waves.

Red lava flows from the new base vent, too:

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The live stream is showing very fluid lava flowing out of these two vents. It is also putting off a lot of steam.

 

[bjdeming]

Fantastic thermal video of the eruptions at Tacande cone from INVOLCAN just now:



(Note: Their tweet says it's available to media but onlywith credit to INVOLCAN.)

More live video from Radio Canarias with superimposed interview with geologists just now (unfortunately, in Spanish, and I can't yet get the captions translation thing going).

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

The new vent appears to be tearing open the side of the cone it’s located at.

 

[bjdeming]

I don't understand the geologist, but from the video it looks like the cone is "unzipping" from the base up. The summit activity seems much less intense at the moment, too, I think.

 

[bjdeming]

While they interview the cook...



Other tweets showed tremor dropping dramatically after the new vent opened, though the summit appears to be going strong. Hope this just crumbles...

BTW, don't think this live.

PEVOLCA is holding an urgent meeting; more news soon.

Edit: "Soon" in geologic terms, that is. They have a tough job. Unfortunately, these events unfold a lot more slowly than an incoming squall line or landfalling hurricane, yet the damage can be much worse and happen in seconds sometimes. AND all the important factors behind the action that scientists/emergency managers need to monitor are hidden from view.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

Impressive lava flows and splattering from the new vent.

 

[bjdeming]

The PEVOLCA press conference is underway. Radio Canarias is tweeting highlight that can be translated into English.

He also said something about tomorrow, but I couldn't follow it. My take: Apparently nothing dire is expected at any moment for now, which is good.

Nerd stuff: Per scientific tweets, the ground deformation to date is 11 inches; tremor dropped after the new vent opened up, but it's still higher than at many earlier stages of the eruption; and the twin lava streams are ~1100° C.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

View of the old vent and new vent. The old vent is spraying numerous volcanic bombs.

 

[bjdeming]

More information -- somewhat reassuring -- from the press conference via RTVC (via browser translator; their emphasis):

These are two emission centers separated from each other and no fissures have been found that could jeopardize the stabilization of the main cone. Blanco has said that the system has had an overpressurization and therefore there have been very strong explosions during today and although seismic activity has decreased, the director of the IGN in the Canary Islands has affirmed that the eruptive process has not stopped.

It has also warned of the cyclical behavior it has, with periods of greater stability and others of greater intensity. Blanco has pointed out that the lava flows that arise from the two new eruptive mouths are not very viscous so they can jump geographical obstacles and move above the existing lava.

And Cumbre Vieja is certainly polluting the neighborhood! (Safi is quite a ways south of Casablanca on the Moroccan coast.)

Fortunately, that doesn't reach the stratosphere.

 

[bjdeming]

About 40 minutes ago, INVOLCAN tweeted that a new vent had opened up a little west of the Tacande cone. No word yet on whether lava is erupting there.

 

[bjdeming]

Weather watchers have unintentionally helped volcanologists, though I doubt this is accurate, given different phase and density.



I learned yesterday that there is a citizen group of volcanophiles in the Canaries, recognized by and working with official agencies. Here is a "chase" video from today.

 

[bjdeming]

Wow!



While locally catastrophic, I suspect the world will remember this geographically limited eruption for:

1. The island flank NOT collapsing (hopefully).
2. Sulfur dioxide production (and maybe other gases) and its effects on people and agriculture; good thing this is occurring near the end of the growing season, not the start.

 

[bjdeming]

Per this unofficial but careful source, tweeted about an hour ago, yesterday's twin vents closed up and activity continued only at the summit vent. Don't know when that actually happened, if it did. PEVOLCA is meeting now, I think, so there will be official information on all this later this morning (US time).

 

[bjdeming]

The Geological and Mining Institute, OTOH, reports the Tacande Cone has broken, per El Mundo, in the southwest and a single, very fluid lava flow is happening -- there's an ongoing press conference, but the language barrier is a problem. There is a heckuva lot of ash (for this eruption) behind these journalists live.

 

[bjdeming]

IGME (the Geological and Mining Institute) tweets again that the cone is ruptured and the lava is very fluid. Can't find any direct visuals other than RTVC above, and from a distance, that's what does appear to be happening.

Good thing they called those evacuations.

 

[MNTornadoGuy]

It definitely does look like part of the cone collapsed.

 

[bjdeming]

View attachment 10432View attachment 10433View attachment 10431It definitely does look like part of the cone collapsed.

Don't go by the night shots, though: it's 3:30 p.m. over there and sunny everywhere except on ashy La Palma.