The lava that has reached the sea has now created a "low island" more than half a kilometre wide, according to Spain's Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas CSIC.
Authorities have set up an exclusion zone around the flow, including in the sea, to keep people away from any potential danger. The Canary Islands Volcano Institute has suggested the eruption could last between 24 and 84 days. In the lead up to the first ejection of lava, seismic activity near the surface of the island increased significantly - as the chart below shows.
Data from Spain's National Geographic Institute shows how a series of small tremors began to take place on 11 September under a mountain range known as Cumbre Vieja, leading scientists to believe there could be magma pushing under the surface of the Earth. This seismic activity gradually moved to the surface and, in the two days before the eruption, tremors were felt only m underground. Although volcanic activity calmed down late last week, the volcano has become more active again.
The Spanish government has declared La Palma a disaster zone and has promised financial support for all those affected. The island's last eruption in lasted for just over three weeks. Image source, Getty Images. What happened?
La Palma's pristine salt flats located on the island's south end have turned black due to volcanic ash. The site is one of the island's most visited tourist locations, Silvio Castellanos and Juan Medina reports for Reuters.
It has completely penetrated the grain. It's impossible to separate," Andres Hernandez, the manager of salt flats Salinas de Teneguia to Reuters. A total of tons of salt is unsalvageable. Despite the eruption displacing island residents, tourists are flocking to La Palma to capture a glimpse of the volcanic fury. However, individuals who live on La Palma are frustrated with the influx of tourists when so many people had to evacuate and had their homes destroyed.
Elizabeth Gamillo is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian and a science journalist based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The island's volcano has entered its sixth week of eruption and shows no signs of stopping.
Then imagine trying to do that in a cramped caravan, after your home was surrounded by lava or buried beneath it.
This is the upturned reality for around 20 families, bedding down for another night in a back street in Los Llanos. They are the homeless of the six-week-old eruption, who cannot even dream of going home without being woken by the volcano's tremors and rumble. Dacil Batista shares her small caravan with her partner and their two children, along with her mother-in-law and sister-in-law.
After all these weeks you'd expect deeper dismay, even anger. But Dacil is thankful for the food, clothes and toys from the local town hall and hopes to take her children home one day. The children, cut off from their normal lessons, are now being taught in borrowed space using donated books.
Their teacher, Christina Mederos, managed to grab the computers but not much else before Las Manchas school was abandoned to the lava. The walls of this temporary classroom have pictures of the erupting volcano drawn by children across the Canary Islands and sent here in support. Ten-year-old Rodrigo explains that he's now living with his grandmother: "I thought it would end quickly but the volcano has destroyed houses.
Classmate Sergio describes the lava and the destruction done to the trees, landscape and his grandfather's house. He says the eruption "is beautiful, but it does a lot of damage". The children can't even play outside, Christina tells me, because the air and school yard are thick with ash.
I didn't know how they felt about it all," she says. Covid rules suggest the windows should be open for ventilation, but volcanic ash and the risk of toxic gases mean they stay firmly closed. Masks and goggles are all in place before the children step outside. Scientists have come to La Palma, to monitor the lava, check for gases and analyse the newest rocks on Earth. Dr Matt Pankhurst of the Canary Islands Volcano Institute shows me the samples taken by poking a long stick into the lava and dropping it, steaming, into a bucket of cold water - live geology lessons in Earth's oldest processes.
His main focus is the crystals held within the hardened lava.
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