SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE 15 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan) asserts that the ‘seismic swarm’ observed in the early hours of Thursday, which involved around five hundred tremors within a three-hour period in Las Cañadas del Teide, does not signify a “noteworthy anomaly” although it concurrently acknowledges that such occurrences are not “common” on the island.
In contrast to earthquakes that are caused by the fracturing of underground rocks, the so-called “hybrid and long-period seismic events” are directly associated with the movement of hydrothermal fluids (water, gas, and steam) within a volcano, as clarified in a statement on social media.
Involcan reports that since 2017, Tenerife has documented at least 118 seismic swarms of earthquakes and five swarms of hybrid seismic events – specifically on October 2, 2016, June 14, 2019, June 16, 2022, July 12, 2022, and November 14, 2024– indicating an increase in pressure within the volcanic-hydrothermal system of Tenerife due to the injection of magmatic fluids into the underlying volcanic-hydrothermal system.
In this context, it highlights that these phenomena do not imply a heightened likelihood of a volcanic eruption occurring in Tenerife in the short to medium term, despite the island remaining volcanically active, with an estimated probability of a volcanic eruption taking place within the next 50 years being 39.35%.
