On the Canary Island of La Palma there is no further relaxation in sight. According to a new census, more houses are affected by lava flows. There are also small earthquakes.
La Palma – The lava flow from the volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma destroyed a total of 1817 buildings by Saturday. That was 269 more than in the last count on Thursday, reported the state TV broadcaster RTVE, citing the European Earth observation system Copernicus.
However, nothing was known of any new evacuations. Since midnight, almost 40 light to medium earthquakes have been registered again, the most violent with a strength of 4.6 at a depth of 37 kilometers. “The quakes indicate that the eruption will continue unabated,” said earthquake expert Eduardo Suarez of the National Geographic Institute.
The volcano in Cumbre Vieja, which has no name yet, erupted on September 19th for the first time in 50 years. Since then, the lava and heavy ash rain have caused great damage to houses, infrastructure and agriculture, especially in the banana plantations. More than 7000 people had to leave their homes as a precaution, a large number of which are now buried under lava. Nobody has been seriously injured so far.
According to the operator Aena, the island’s airport was still operational, but was initially no longer served by international and regional airlines due to the high proportion of ash in the air. Air traffic on the other large tourist islands in the Canaries – Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria or Lanzarote – ran normally. dpa
