No truce but a huge gray cloud on the horizon.
The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands archipelago, which has lasted since Sunday, September 19, has forced the company managing the Spanish airports (Aena) to cancel scheduled flights at the airport on the island of La Palma, where it is located.
Three departing and four arriving flights, all domestic flights, were still scheduled for Friday evening.
But the Cumbre Vieja Volcano decided otherwise and began a new episode of intense eruptive activity on Friday, causing violent explosions and new evacuations in several neighborhoods of El Paso, city of the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
"Given the increased risk for the population due to the current eruptive episode", the authorities of the archipelago indicated having "issued a compulsory evacuation order for (the districts of) Tajuya, Tacande de Abajo and the non-evacuated part of Tacande de Arriba ”.
Authorities did not say how many people were affected.
# ErupciónLaPalma Según los datos meteorológicos se descarta que se produzca lluvia ácida durante la jornada, que en caso de producirse, no provocaría afecciones significativas, al tratarse de un evento puntual, no persistente.
Salvo necesidad, evita desplazamientos en vehículos.
pic.twitter.com/ouhvHPOOW2
- Guardia Civil 🇪🇸 (@guardiacivil) September 24, 2021
A video broadcast by the Civil Guard showed a garden completely covered by "between 30 and 40 centimeters" of volcanic ash, which falls from the volcano.
Two new eruptive vents, from which lava flows were emerging, also opened at the volcano, said the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute.
"Zone affected by a disaster"
According to the latest data from Copernicus, the European system of geospatial measurements, lava has so far destroyed 390 buildings and covered 180.1 ha - or 40 more buildings in two days - on the island whose main economic activity is banana cultivation.
The speed of the lava flows that have devastated part of the island in recent days has slowed markedly and authorities are no longer able to predict if and when they might arrive in the Atlantic Ocean.
Read also Acid fluids, sulfur cloud, "small tsunami" ... should we be worried about the volcanic eruption in La Palma?
The meeting between lava and the sea is feared because of the emission of toxic gases that it could cause. The interaction "quite brutal between lava at more than 1000 degrees and sea water at 20 degrees creates powerful columns of vapor laden with droplets of acid", tells Parisian Patrick Allard, CNRS research director emeritus at the Institut de physique du globe de Paris (IPGP) and president of the international association of volcanology.
The eruption of Cumbre Vieja left no injuries or fatalities, but had already resulted in the evacuation of around 6,100 people, including 400 tourists, before these new evacuations.
In addition, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, visiting the island, announced that the Spanish government would declare La Palma a natural “disaster-affected area” next Tuesday in the Council of Ministers.
This measure will unblock the granting of aid to residents.