La Palma eruption update 3rd december 2021: Limited activity seen from any of the vents today

La Palma eruption update 3rd december 2021: Limited activity seen from any of the vents today

Daily summary

Today, the eruptive activity is low and varied, relative to recent days. Until the early morning, activity was concentrated in the northeast vent, which showed periods of strong strombolian activity interspersed with shorter periods of no activity from either vent. Numerous active lava streams remained close to the vent, which are predominantly flowing through the main portion of the flow field over existing flows (mostly flow 10). Throughout the day eruptive activity has been low to minimal, with no activity from the northeast cone for much of the day, and occasional ash-rich emission, likely phreatomagmatic in nature, from the main vent.

Other monitoring indicators have also lowered relative to previous days. As of 19:00 local time there have been 43 earthquakes, peaking at M3.4, relative to 98 yesterday and over 300 the two days before then. As with the last few days, the earthquakes are almost exclusively at shallow to intermediate depths (10-15km). Tremor is fluctuating but stays at low-medium levels, and deformation is predominantly stable. However, 6cm of vertical deformation has been recorded at the Jedey station, which is attributed to the feeding of the eruptive process and is very sensitive due to its location according to PEVOLCA.

Access to the evacuated zones by both land and sea has not been allowed today due to poor air quality, although outside this zone good levels of SO2 concentrations are recorded at all stations. PM10 concentration has worsened in Los Llanos de Aridane, exceeding the daily limit value yesterday and remaining unfavourable today. Elsewhere, PM10 levels are reasonably good or good, apart from in La Grama-Breña Alta where they are regular.

The large dark grey cone of the volcano is seen with some steam rising from the top but no lava or ash. In the background the black lava flow field can be seen extending towards the sea

An image of the eruption on the 3rd looking southwest at a time where there was limited activity from all of the vents. Image credit: INVOLCAN

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

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

News articles

  • Natour – Coverage and excursions to the volcano – here
  • Phys – Summary of the Longpre paper – here
  • Spain News – Stray cats look for food – 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

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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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