"85 days and 8 hours".
This is the time that the eruption of the Cumbe Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma, officially declared over on Saturday, will have lasted.
"Today, the scientific committee can say that the eruption is over," announced Julio Pérez, the director of the Canary Islands volcanic emergency plan (Pevolca) at a press conference.
"There is no lava, no significant gas emission, no significant earthquakes", enumerated the person in charge while the eruption had restarted several times after lulls.
The volcano has not shown activity since December 13 and it took at least ten consecutive days without any significant sign of volcanic activity, to be able to say that the episode was over.
Now Cumbre Vieja is in lethargy, its lava torrents are black, frozen, hardened, and a layer of black sand - ash - has settled like a veil over the place.
It will take years, if not a decade, to clean up, clear away, rebuild and reclaim this disfigured land.
Risks of toxic gases
"The end of the eruption does not mean that there is no more danger", warned Julio Pérez, adding that "the risks and dangers remain".
There will still be toxic gas emissions and the lava will take a long time to cool.
Not to mention the risk of land collapse.
Volcanic activity is inscribed in the history of La Palma, which, like the six other islands of the Canary Archipelago, located in the Atlantic Ocean, off the northwestern coast of Africa, is volcanic origin.
However, it was the longest eruption the island has known and the first in 50 years, after those of the San Juan volcano in 1949 and Teneguia in 1971.
Read alsoCanaries: on the edge of Cumbre Vieja, the ruthless erupting volcano in photos
The 83,000 inhabitants of La Palma will not forget the earthquakes, nor the ash rains, nor the toxic gases or the smoke escaping from the cone of the volcano which forced them to seal themselves sometimes for several days. Despite its duration and the impressive images of the molten lava flows, it did not kill anybody, but caused enormous damage: more than 7000 people were evacuated, among whom approximately 500 still live in hotels, and near 3000 buildings were destroyed.
Lava covered 1219 ha of the island's surface area and even ... enlarged it: the flows that reached the sea solidified and gave rise to two peninsulas, adding to the island's surface area 43.5 ha in the south and 5 ha in the north, according to data provided by local authorities on Saturday.
At the height of the episode, the volcano spat out thousands of gallons of lava, producing bubbling, fluorescent flows that rolled down the mountain, all in a constant roar.
Considerable damage
The homes had to be evacuated in haste, sometimes coming back to pick up animals and personal effects a few days later.
Sunken villas or buildings, roads disappearing under lava flows and spectacular jets of salt water when the lava entered the sea: the activity of the volcano has punctuated Spanish television news for weeks on end.
Three months of paralysis, with regular air traffic interruptions and the closure of La Palma airport, on this small island heavily dependent on tourism.
The lava has also done a lot of harm to the banana plantations, the other key sector of the local economy, since it accounts for 50% of its GDP.
The damage could amount to 900 million euros, local authorities estimated on Saturday.
The Spanish government, whose leader Pedro Sánchez has visited the site on numerous occasions, has pledged 225 million euros in aid intended in particular to build housing and buy basic necessities, as well as to direct subsidies to farmers and fishermen.
Madrid also called on the European Commission to activate the European Union solidarity fund.
