Lava shoots up from volcano on La Palma in Spanish Canary Islands

Authored by cde.news and submitted by eduardcn
image for Lava shoots up from volcano on La Palma in Spanish Canary Islands

LA PALMA, Spain (Reuters) -A volcano erupted on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma on Sunday, sending fountains of lava and a plume of smoke and ash into the air from the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island.

Authorities had already begun evacuating the infirm and some farm animals from the surrounding villages before the eruption, which took place in the Cabeza de Vaca in El Paso at 3:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), according to the Canary Islands government.

There had been more than 22,000 tremors this week in the area, one of the most active volcanoes in the Canary Islands.

Soldiers were deployed to help with the evacuation, the defence ministry said, and it is expected that more residents will be evacuated from surrounding towns.

Ahead of the eruption, scientists had recorded a series of earthquakes reaching 3.8 magnitude in the national park , according to the Spanish National Geographical Institute (ING).

BREAKING: Volcanic eruption on Canary Island of La Palma in Spain. pic.twitter.com/XghhbjqBPO — Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) September 19, 2021

The earliest recorded volcanic eruption in La Palma took place in 1430, according to the ING. In the last eruption in 1971, one man was killed when he took photographs near the lava flows but no property was damaged.

GipsyPepox on September 19th, 2021 at 19:20 UTC »

There are still some earthquakes. The biggest one (that started the eruption) was 4.2 richter. Experts say if one similar occurs again a new eruption would be very likely

EDIT: Okay it just have erupted again.

GipsyPepox on September 19th, 2021 at 18:09 UTC »

Over 4000 earthquakes in the last couple of weeks. 2000 inhabitants have already been evacuated. Lava flows slowly toward the sea, some houses have already been burned/buried. 7 active vents for the moment

eduardcn on September 19th, 2021 at 14:44 UTC »

Live Video Reuters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmQVquojJfo

Live Local TV: https://rtvc.es/en-directo/

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First moments gallery + videos: https://imgur.com/a/WbsUxTi

Evening gallery + videos: https://imgur.com/a/tMjYaOF

Lava reaching the houses videos: https://imgur.com/a/QePv1PJ + https://imgur.com/a/Yu2ctxU (NEW)

Night gallery + videos: https://imgur.com/a/AuN9QQ0

Same island 50 years algo, similar scenario, different vulcano, beautiful video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB-892BFL6A

"Over 4000 earthquakes in the last couple of weeks. 2000 inhabitants have already been evacuated. Lava flows slowly toward the sea, some houses have already been burned/buried. 7 active vents for the moment" update from u/GipsyPepox

"Out of the 4000 earthquakes, 7 were of magnitude 3 or higher. Also, about the eruption, it is a "small" one. Air traffic functions as usual and the experts say that it shouldn't be very troublesome, even though it may last weeks or months (depending on how it evolves they'll give a timetable)." update from u/Albreitx

After nightfall, video footage shows fountains of lava shooting hundreds of metres into the sky, and at least three incandescent orange rivers of molten rock pouring down the hill, tearing gashes into woods and farmland, and spreading as they reached lower ground. +5000 inhabitants evacuated. Night video: https://imgur.com/a/LE0RsUm

Mentioning /u/theearthquakeguy for some insights :)

Going to bed now, I'll update in the morning.