"We hope there won't be any personal injuries." "There will be considerable material damage," Torres told SER radio. We would need to start over again."Ĭanary Islands government chief Angel Victor Torres said officials weren't expecting any more eruptions, adding that air traffic in the area wasn't affected. We have all of our lives inside (our house). "For now," he said, "it seems like it's safe, but the lava is opening many paths. He didn't know whether the lava had consumed his home. Scientists say the lava flows could last for weeks or months, but the immediate danger to local people appeared to be over.ĭaniel Alvarez, a bar owner in Las Manchas, one of the closest villages to the volcano, was evacuated with his family on Sunday and was staying at the El Fuerte military barracks with some other 300 evacuees. Scientists monitoring the lava measured it at more than 1,000Īuthorities on La Palma, where people largely live from farming, told people in the wide areas where volcanic ash was falling to stay indoors with their doors and windows closed. Officials said they expected it to reach the Atlantic Ocean around sunset, where it could cause explosions and produce clouds of acidic steam. The lava was moving at 700 meters per hour, according to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute. "It was a special place, we saw it once and we fell in love," Anette Fuchs told The Associated Press, recounting how the couple hosted large dinners for friends and visiting relatives. Built in the islands' traditional architectural style using volcanic materials from previous eruptions, the couple had been improving it over nearly four decades. They said they fell in love with the house the moment they first saw it. One of them belonged to German couple Matthias and Anette Fuchs, 65 and 64 respectively. The lava destroyed more than 100 homes on the hillsides. Scientists had been monitoring the area on the island of Palma, in the volcanic Canary Islands, in recent days amid thousands of mostly small earthquakes, and authorities quickly evacuated around 5,500 people. Long fingers of fiery red lava slid down hillsides with white smoke billowing from their leading edges as they swallowed up houses, gardens and swimming pools in a trail of destruction across the verdant countryside.Īn incessant rumble, like that of an airplane passing overhead, came from the nearby Cumbre Vieja ridge where the eruption occurred Sunday afternoon when two fissures started belching bright red magma into the air and set the glowing lava rivers in motion. The Mauna Loa eruption map below created by the National Park Service shows the direction of lava flows resulting from previous eruptive events since 1843.Giant rivers of lava tumbled slowly but relentlessly toward the sea Monday after a volcano erupted on a Spanish island off northwest Africa, with prompt evacuations helping to avoid casualties. Mauna Loa eruptions usually involve high-volume lava flows that are capable of traveling long distances. It is the largest active volcano on Earth, standing at 13,681 feet above sea level, and 30,000 feet above the bottom of the ocean-greater than the height of Mount Everest. This is an average of one eruption every five years over this period. Mauna Loa is among Earth's most active volcanoes, having erupted more than 30 times since its first well-documented eruption in 1843. The map created by the County of Hawaii, which covers the Big Island, is providing updates about the eruption, including information about lava flows, ashfall and road closures. In the past few hours, the USGS has recorded more than 60 earthquakes in the Mauna Loa area at the time of writing, with the largest of these measuring 4.2 in magnitude. But if the eruption migrates to areas outside the summit, as has occurred during previous events, there is a chance that lava could start flowing downslope. The HVO said lava flows will most likely be confined within the walls of the caldera if the eruption remains at the summit. The volcano, the biggest on Earth, started erupting on November 27, 2022. This compilation of images includes a graphic about historic lava flows at Mauna Loa (L), a current hazard impact map (R) and lava at the caldera (Bottom).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |