Volcanic eruption on La Palma
SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias (Involcan) has carried out new measures to evaluate and monitor the amount of sulfur dioxide (SO2) emitted into the atmosphere by the current eruptive process at Cumbre Vieja, on the island of La Palma.
The results obtained for this second day of the eruption reflect a SO2 emission rate between 7,997 and 10,665 tons per day, assuming that the wind speed at 3,000 meters yesterday was between 4.2 and 5.5 meters per second (meteorological data provided by Aemet).
The estimation has been made after carrying out several measurement transects with a remote optical sensor, miniDOAS type, both in an area mobile position (with the instrumentation mounted on one of the Civil Guard helicopters in Tenerife) and in a land mobile position (with the miniDOAS mounted on one of the ITER / Involcan vehicles).
According to Involcan, the daily monitoring of this parameter will be essential to analyze the evolution of the current process and to be able to use this methodology to certify the final date of the eruption. The values obtained during the second day of this eruptive process (8,000-10,500 tons per day) are similar and even slightly higher than the values recorded for the first day of the eruption (6,000-9,000 tons per day).
The Institute explains that these results are consistent with the first 48 hours of evolution of this eruptive process with the appearance of a new point of emission of magmatic material in Tacande, an area of the municipality of El Paso.
It also adds that the SO2 emission results obtained through terrestrial observations are consistent with the satellite observations recorded by TROPOMI, the satellite instrument on board the Copernicus Sentinel-5 Precursor satellite. The Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) is the first of the atmospheric composition Sentinels, launched on October 13, 2017.
