And one good day, just Christmas, the volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma, which roared for almost three months and had been exhausted for days, finally officially fell asleep.
This was announced this Saturday by the authorities of the Canary Islands in the island’s capital, Santa Cruz de la Palma, Spain.
But at the Tajuya viewpoint, a few kilometers from the now silent volcano, Itahiza Dominguez, a seismologist at the National Geographic Institute of Spain, watches over this giant’s dream.
Surrounded by screens with signals like those emitted by electrocardiograms, Domínguez monitors, in that kind of online baby-call, the dream of the volcano that roared since September 19 and covered 1,200 hectares of the island with lava.
“Today, at last, the end of the eruption has been declared. The eruption can be considered finished. But not the eruptive process ”, clarifies the seismologist to Clarion.
“There is still risk for the population,” he adds.
-The volcano has not emitted lava for days. Why is the eruption considered to have ended on December 25?
-The end of the eruption was actually on December 13 at 22:21 and it was declared today because of the circumstances and the drop in level of all the parameters that could indicate a reactivation of the eruption. After more than 10 days of decrease in these parameters, the eruption can be considered as finished. But not the eruptive process.
The La Palma volcano, in full eruption last November. AP Photo
-What does that mean?
-The eruptive process began four years ago, with an anomalous seismic activity that was repeated and that intensified a week before the beginning of the eruption. And now, after the eruption is over, the process can take quite a long time. The example we have in the Canary Islands was the last eruption prior to this one, which was 10 years ago on the island of El Hierro. It was an eruptive process that lasted two years after the eruption. With several magmatic intrusions that did not generate a new eruption, but could have. Here we do not know if this will occur.
-The process began four years ago but the neighbors were evacuated hours before the eruption. When will they be able to go home?
-There is still danger for the population. There are gases that are emanating from the volcano. The volcano is cooling, but we are talking about 200 million cubic meters of material that it expelled and that is still cooling. Right now, these gases affect the areas closest to the volcano, but those areas that are vacated cannot be relocated. The structures could have been affected by ashfall or by the presence of nearby lava and that also has to be evaluated. The relocation of people will be done little by little and will be decided by Pevolca (Special Plan for Civil Protection and Emergency Attention for Volcanic Risk of the Canary Islands).
-How long are you going to monitor the situation of the volcano?
-We always do. We have been working in volcanic surveillance for 15 years. But intensively, surely for the next few months. It will depend on the parameters. The surveillance will then be at a distance.
-There is talk of reconstruction, but what should be done on those hectares today covered with lava?
-It is a complicated subject. The government of the Canary Islands has to solve it. There could be areas near the volcano that are protected. But it is true that the lava flows themselves are what make up the volcanic islands in the Canary Islands. The islands have been formed by eruptions and built on those flows. Right now it will be necessary to decide how to do it, if the roads pass over these flows or not. There are streams that are between 60 and 70 meters above the original topography, although the average has been 12 meters.
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