La Palma eruption update 15th November 2021: The lava has created 41 hectares of new land so far

La Palma eruption – 15th November 2021

Daily summary

The latest statistics on the renewed growth of the lava delta over the past few days indicate it has now created 41 hectares of new land away from the previous coastline. The lava delta has continued to grow to the south as flow 9 which was travelling over the 1949 lava delta has now reached the sea and adds material to it. As well as flows 1, 2 and 9 feeding the lava delta, flows 4 and 7, the fronts of which are located to the south of La Laguna Mountain near the northern edge of the flow field, are also being fed by lava tubes.  Regarding earthquakes the frequency and magnitude remained fairly low. 44 events were recorded, with similar amounts at both intermediate (10-15 km) and deeper (30-45 km) depths, with the day’s largest earthquake being a mbLg 4.4 event at 38 km depth. Levels of deep seismicity remain constant but levels of intermediate depth seismicity has decreased in the last few days.

SO2 emissions decreased to levels seen on the 13th, at 3,000-3,500 tons per day, whilst the ash and gas plume again reached 3,100 m. However, satellite measurements imply current SO2 emissions show a downward trend since the start of the eruption. Tremor continues to be stable at low levels as seen since the start of November, and variable deformation continues to be seen at the LP03 GPS station in Jedey closest to the eruption, whilst the rate of regional deflation seen since the start of November in the other stations has decreased. Regarding air quality, SO2 levels were at good or reasonably good levels in all stations except Los Llanos and Puntagorda where the daily threshold (125 μg/m3) was exceeded due to peaks of unfavourable levels in the morning. PM10 levels in Los Llanos again decreased, with peaks of extremely unfavourable levels up to 542 μg/m3 being recorded at 2pm local time, contributing to the exceedance of the daily threshold (50 μg/m3). Good or reasonably good PM10 levels were recorded at all the other stations.

A false colour image of the lava flows, with the lava flows being mostly blue apart from the active parts which are green. Other unaffected land is mostly yellow

A false colour radar composite image of the affected area from the COSMO-SkyMed satellite. It clearly shows the morphology of the main cone, as well as the areas of active lava flows in the last week (green). Image credit: Copernicus EMS

Sources: Government of the Canary Islands, PEVOLCA, Involcan, IGN, DSN, Cabildo La Palma, 112 Canarias, Tolouse VAAC, Copernicus EMS

Lava flows

Earthquakes

Exclusion zone map

Exclusion zones shown here have been approximated from press releases from the Cabildo de La Palma and will not be exact, nor claim to be official maps of the exclusion zones. For official information, please contact the Cabildo de La Palma.

Official social media

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News articles

  • EOS – Identifying an Eruption “Tipping Point” in Hot Spot Volcanoes – here
  • RTVE – La Palma updates: LIVE – here

To see our full news archive, visit our open data section or click here.

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Eruption footage

News and Interviews

Witness Testimonies

Interactive Lava Flow Map

Notes: Use the button in the top right to open the map into full screen mode. Use the legend icon in the top left to see the legend and further information about the map. Click on individual days to see an outline of the lava flows on that day.

Interactive Earthquake Map

click here to enlarge

Notes: The size of the points represents the size of the earthquake, and the colour represents the depth. The map will also only show a certain number of points at once. For ease of use, we recommend you uncheck all dates and the satellite basemap from the legend in the top right, and inspect the earthquakes one day at a time.

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