Latest news on the seismic swarm on La Palma
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director of the National Geographic Institute (IGN) in the Canary Islands, María José Blanco, pointed out this Friday that the ‘Cumbre Vieja’ volcano, on La Palma, “is very energetic” but also less explosive than those of Teneguía and San Juan, to the point that in just four days it has released the same amount of energy as the ‘Tagoro’ volcano – which was activated in 2011 in the sea south of El Hierro – in two months.
In an interview with ‘Canarias Radio’ and collected by Europa Press, he commented that a daily estimate of magnitudes is made to follow the evolution of seismic processes and “it cannot be ruled out” that “stronger” earthquakes are felt in the next days or weeks.
He has indicated that it is “absolutely unpredictable” to know when the eruption will take place and where it will come from, and although he has admitted that “concern is growing” about the impact that a volcanic eruption could have, he has launched a message of “normality” to face that the Canary Islands is a volcanically active archipelago.
Along these lines, and unlike what happened in other volcanic eruptions on the island, he has indicated that the population has “more information and more training” and “there is no surprise” when a process of this type is triggered, which ended with a score of deceased in the past in the archipelago.
“Many died of fear,” he added, since they were unaware of the existence of a seismovolcanic crisis, “he explained.
Blanco has described the process as “an entry of magmatic material that fills the pores, melts them and advances” –a total of 0.13 cubic kilometers – and if there is finally an eruption there will be more material, although he has specified that “It doesn’t have to go out either.”
In fact, he commented that “knowing if the crust breaks is the million dollar question”, recalling that in El Hierro there was a lot of seismicity, a lot of energy release and a lot of deformation “but they did not last long and did not reach the surface.”
THERE ARE NO CRACKS IN THE SCIENTIFIC MESSAGE
As an example, he has even pointed out that on the island the seismic activity began in the El Golfo valley and the eruption ended up going south and into the sea. “It advanced tens of kilometers”, has commented.
Blanco has also said that “it cannot be ruled out” that the volcanic process started on La Palma “will last for many months” because the islands are active volcanic terrain and there will be more eruptions “in the future”. “They can be prolonged in time, be very short, you have to normalize the situation,” he stressed.
Regarding the possible disparity of criteria between the IGN and the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan), he pointed out that although there are “several voices” to talk about this phenomenon “the message is the same and is agreed by all scientists and without no fissure. “