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| 2021 Cumbre Vieja eruption | |
|---|---|
The eruption seen at night on the 20th September 2021
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| Volcano | Cumbre Vieja |
| Start date | 19 September 2021[1] |
| End date | Ongoing |
| Type | Fissure eruption Strombolian eruption |
| Location | La Palma, Spain 28°36′53.63″N 17°52′7.47″W / 28.6148972°N 17.8687417°W / 28.6148972; -17.8687417 |
| VEI | 2[2] |
  Cumbre Vieja | |
The 2021 Cumbre Vieja eruption is a fissure eruption that started in September 2021 at the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, governed by Spain. An earthquake swarm started on 11 September, and the eruption started on 19 September. It is the first volcanic eruption on the island since the eruption of Teneguía in 1971.
The eruption has caused the evacuation of over 5,000 people, and the lava flow has destroyed more than 600 buildings so far.[3] When the eruption started and was purely effusive, it had a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 0. With the ashfall that began a week later, the VEI rose to 2.[2]
The Cabeza de Vaca area lies northwest of the two 1949 eruptive centers (Duraznero and San Juan). Eyewitness accounts (Bonnelli, 1950) and detailed mapping of the eruptive products showed that during the 1949 eruption, fault displacements also had westward components with downslope movement on the volcano's flanks.[4]
The last subaerial eruption in Spain, also on La Palma, was the 1971 Teneguía eruption, which asphyxiated a nearby photographer with its fumes, but caused no structural damage. The last overall was the 2011–12 El Hierro eruption of a submarine volcano.[5]
Anearthquake swarm started under Cumbre Vieja on 11 September 2021. It slowly migrated to the surface, with earthquakes of up to around mbLg magnitude 3.5,[6][7] and more than 22,000 earthquakes were recorded in the space of a week.[8] A yellow warning of potential volcanic activity was issued on 13 September, covering 35,000 people in the municipalities of Los Llanos de Aridane, Fuencaliente, El Paso and Villa de Mazo.[9] At least 40 individuals and some livestock on La Palma were evacuated by authorities due to this warning,[10] although no complete evacuation of the vicinity around the volcano had been declared.[10]
The eruption began at 15:15 local time (16:15 UTC) on 19 September 2021 in a forested area[5][11] called "Cabeza de Vaca",[8] of Montaña Rajada, in the Las Manchas section of the municipality of El Paso.[9][12]
Around 300 people from the local area were evacuated shortly after the eruption,[13] and then a further 700 people (including 500 tourists) were evacuated from the Los Llanos de Aridane coastal region in case the lava flowed to the sea and cut off the main access roads. The total number of evacuees is now estimated to be 5,000 [14] to 10,000.[5][15] The alert level was raised to its highest level—red—due to the eruption.[14]
The eruption takes place from at least five main vents.[16]
On the fourth day, according to the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, the volcano entered a more explosive phase, expelling less volcanic gas.[17]
As of 2 October the lava flows (currently estimated to be 80 million cubic metres[18]) from the volcano have destroyed or affected over 1,000 buildings, over 30 kilometres (19 mi) of roads and covered an area of nearly 400 hectares (990 acres), with volcanic ash fall covering over 4,800 hectares (12,000 acres) within the limits of the monitored area, according to estimates from visual and radar satellite data by the Copernicus EMS. No casualties have been reported.[19]
On the afternoon of 19 September, the Emergency Committee of the General Hospital of La Palma suspended all non-urgent surgeries, outpatient consultations and patient visits, with exceptions in the latter case, as a preventive measure to guarantee the hospital's capacity to attend in the event that it was required due to the eruption.[20] The hospital resumed normal operations the following day.[21]
On the morning of 20 September, the Canarian Ministry of Education ordered the suspension of all classes in the schools of the nearby municipalities of El Paso, Los Llanos de Aridane and Tazacorte.[22] That same morning, direct flights to the island of La Gomera were suspended, but were restored a few hours later. The day before, the public company in charge of civil air navigation and civil airports in Spain ENAIRE, together with Eurocontrol activated the action procedure for volcanic ash, but assured the public that air traffic over the Canary Islands was not affected.[23]
On 20 September, around two hundred houses have been destroyed by the flow, according to local authorities. No casualties were reported and flights continued into the islands.[5][24][25]
In the early afternoon of 21 September, the lava reached the neighborhood of Todoque, in the municipality of Los Llanos de Aridane, with 1,200 inhabitants. At the end of that day, 185 buildings were destroyed, 400 hectares of arable land were burnt and 5,500 people were evacuated.[26] Los Campitos public school in Los Llanos de Aridane is among those affected, which was destroyed on Monday 20 September.[27]
On 24 September, the eruptive activity intensified, with further ash and volcanic material falling greater distances, forcing firefighters to withdraw from the neighbourhood of Todoque. Two new vents have opened in the side of the main cone, outpouring lava. Authorities have extended the exclusion zone and ordered the evacuation of the neighbourhoods of Tajuya, Tacande de Abajo and Tacande de Arriba in the afternoon. Several civilian airlines have suspended flights to the island due to the ash cloud.[28][29]
On 25 September, Aena, the operator of the La Palma Airport, had suspended all flights due to ash accumulation with cleaning tasks underway. On the same day, a part of the volcano's principal cone had collapsed and a new emissive vent had opened to the west of the principal cone (or possibly a previous one that had reopened). The new lava flow followed the previous path, although slightly widening in area.[30][31]
On 26 September, the previously stalled lava flows started again to advance towards the coast, destroying the Todoque neighbourhood church of Saint Pius X and advancing to the sea at a speed of 100 to 200 meters per hour, mostly on top of the older flow. Meanwhile, the volcano seemed to have entered a more stabilised period after the previous days of more explosive eruptions with a slight fall in seismic activity that took place at deeper depths than before, according to IGN.[32][33]
On 27 September, the volcano went though a dormant stage—emitting only smoke and ash—which lasted for about six hours before restarting activity with lava flows in the afternoon.
On 28 September, at around 23:02 local time (00:02 UTC), the lava flow reached the sea at the Beach of Los Guirres, also called New Beach, of the municipality of Tazacorte. The heating of the seawater to a high temperature might produce laze containing emissions of sulfuric, hydrochloric, and hydrofluoric acid into the air.[34] Traces of sulphur dioxide emissions from the volcano itself had been detected in the upper stratosphere as far north as Scandinavia, but the actual impacts of the SO2 emissions on the weather and air quality were said to be globally negligible so far, mostly due to the emitted amounts and their altitude[35]. Earlier on that day, Spain's government classified the island of La Palma as a disaster zone, due to the steadily increasing property and economic damage caused by the eruption, a move that will trigger emergency subsidies and other support measures.[3]
The lava flow into the sea created a new lava delta,[36]orfajana.[37] As of 30 September, this was 20 hectares (49 acres) in size and continuing to grow.[36] It was 27.7 hectares by 2 October. The new land is claimed by the Spanish Government.[37]
On 1 October, a new vent opened – the third in addition to the main crater. This emitted two streams of lava which cut the important LP2 highway and threatened more of the populated area of Los Llanos de Aridane.[18]
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, went to the archipelago shortly after the eruption to see the situation on La Palma first-hand, the coordination of the system and the protocols activated, postponing a trip to New York to attend the Seventy-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly.[38]
King Felipe VI, called on the afternoon of the eruption to the President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, to inquire about the situation.[38] The following day during, the opening ceremony of the university year in Córdoba, the King sent a message of support to "those who are suffering the evacuation of their homes" and thanked the emergency services for their work.[39]
The European Union, on 19 September, activated the Copernicus Programme to monitor the eruption and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, via Twitter, announced that "additional support, if necessary," would be made available to the Spanish government.[40]
The Bishop of Tenerife, Bernardo Álvarez Afonso, held a mass on 22 September at the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves in La Palma, together with the priests of the island, to pray for the end of the eruption.[41] At the Angelus on Sunday 26 September, Pope Francis expressed his "closeness and solidarity with those affected by the eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma, in the Canary Islands".[42] The Todoque Church was subsequently destroyed by the lava flow on 26 September.[43]
On 24 September, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that at the next meeting of the council of ministers, on 28 September, the island will be declared a disaster area, that the government is preparing a reconstruction plan and a set of immediate measures to provide housing for those families whose homes have been destroyed.[44]
The eruption source is not a new volcano: it is a new vent of an ancient volcano, the Cumbre Vieja, which encompasses the whole southern half of La Palma. The new vent is as yet unnamed. Volcano vents on La Palma have traditionally been either given Guanche names or, more rarely and not in recent times, named after the Saint on whose feast day the eruption began.[45][46][47] An early proposal for a Guanche name for the new vent was Jedey, after a village a few kilometres distant, but this has not been received favourably.[48][45][46] A newer proposal is Tajogaite,[49] after the Guanche name for the Montaña Rajada ("Cracked Mountain"), the area directly downhill from the eruption site.[49][45]. This name has since gained wider favour.[48][45]
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