Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa traveled to Sao Jorge Island in the Azores on Sunday to convey a message of "serenity and tranquility" to the local population in the face of the risk of a volcanic eruption after a series of earthquakes of low magnitude.
"People have to keep a cool head
," he said during a short visit to the island, one of nine in the Azores archipelago, located in the middle of the North Atlantic, 1,600 km from the mainland. .
"There is no reason to fall into alarmism that the current situation does not justify
," added the head of state.
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Since the beginning of the "seismic crisis" which started last weekend, the Azores Seismo-Volcanic Information and Monitoring Center (Civisa) has detected more than 14,000 tremors, which have not yet did no damage.
About 200 of these earthquakes could be felt by the inhabitants and the strongest of them, recorded on March 19, reached a magnitude of 3.3 on the Richter scale.
Avoid unnecessary travel
This seismic activity can be caused by a rise of magma, the Civisa placed Sao Jorge at the fourth level of volcanic alert on a scale which has six.
The slender island, 54 km long and 8 km wide, has just over 8,000 inhabitants.
About 2,500 of them have already left their place of residence to settle in the eastern part of the island, which is considered safer, or to go to one of the neighboring islands.
The regional government has advised against unnecessary travel and prepared emergency accommodation facilities, but has not yet issued any evacuation orders.
"The authorities tell us to keep calm, but how do you keep calm in such a situation?"
, wonders Marco Bettencourt, who stayed on the heights of the central part of the island, the epicenter of many earthquakes, to take care of his fifty dairy cows.
As its pastures are located very close to the site of the last eruption experienced by the island, in 1808, "
it's a little scary but my cows are here, I can't abandon them"
, explains to AFP this 33-year-old breeder, while his mother, two sisters and most of his neighbors have already left their village.