15 Oct La Palma eruption update 15th october 2021: Advance of lava flows speeds up
La Palma eruption update 15th october 2021: Advance of lava flows speeds up
Daily summary
The eruption continues to show a mixed strombolian mechanism, with both explosive and effusive phases, although currently the effusive phase is the more predominant one. This has been observed downstream as an increase in fluidity of the active lava flows as a result of the greater supply rate of magma. During the night, the stream furthest north advanced at up to 250 m per hour, although it has slowed down to 20-30 m per hour. The area affected by lava is now 696 hectares, with the maximum width of the flow field 1,770 m. Regarding the inflation of 5 cm has been seen at the LP03 station between Jedey and Las Manchas yesterday, today it has shown a partial reversal, and no significant signals are seen in any of the other stations. During the afternoon, an old vent 300 m SE of the main cone reactivated although only with ash emission, and its activity decreased overnight.
Volcanic tremor remains at an elevated level of amplitude, with pulses of higher intensity also being seen. Earthquake activity remained intense and contained both intermediate (10-15 km) and deep (>20 km) earthquakes. 78 events were recorded, peaking at 4.5 mbLg. The ash and gas plume reached 4000 m, and the SO2 emissions from the volcano were lower than previous days, at 2,882 tons per day, although this is an underestimate. SO2 concentrations remained below threshold levels throughout the day, although the stations in Los Llanos, El Paso, Tazacorte and Puntagorda came close to exceeding the hourly threshold (350 μg/m3) in the morning. PM10 concentrations increased in all stations due to the arrival of a Saharan air mass, and the daily threshold (50 μg/m3) was exceeded in the morning in Los Llanos, peaking at 242 μg/m3 at 10:00 am local time.
A team of scientists setting up a bucket to catch ashfall. Measuring how the amount and composition of the ash changes throughout the eruption can give clues into subsurface processes beneath the volcano. Image credit: INVOLCAN
Sources: Government of the Canary Islands, PEVOLCA, Involcan, IGN, DSN, Cabildo La Palma, 112 Canarias, Tolouse VAAC, Copernicus EMS
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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.
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