La Palma Reconstruction Updates

The gas levels in La Bombilla and Puerto Naos continue to show little sign of improvements, with gas monitors belonging to INVOLCAN exceeding 50,000 ppm of CO2 daily inside buildings in some areas. Further meetings are taking place to attempt to determine a pathway for improved access to the area, and plans are underway to restore water to La Bombilla and Puerto Naos.

The CO2 levels continue to be very high in La Bombilla and Puerto Naos, still preventing the return of residents, with levels of over 50,000 ppm still being regularly recorded. The ongoing situation has led to some unrest among the affected residents, with gas monitoring equipment being vandalised on multiple occasions in the affected areas.

Science: The Cabildo de La Palma and the scientific committee have finally started sharing live gas measurements for La Bombilla and Puerto Naos, offering some transparency for those still affected who were unsure about the gas levels. A map can be viewed here: https://volcan.lapalma.es/pages/calidad-del-aire.

Among research outputs related to the eruption in the last month was an ecological and evolutionary investigation by PhD student María Guerrero and colleagues at the University of Malaga during the eruption. One conclusion was that for the first time, a link between the ‘woodiness’ of a plant has been linked to resilience to volcanic eruptions, as they found woody plants survived whereas many more herbaceous plants could not tolerate the conditions of the eruption.

Work has begun to on the La Laguna – Las Norias road across the lava flow field to install streetlights, allowing the road to be open 24 hours a day. Previously the road, which sees 5,500 crossings per day, was only open from 6am-10pm, which prevented the ability of some people to work or return to their homes if their work was on the other side of the lava flows, according to president of the...

High CO2 levels persist in La Bombilla and Puerto Naos, preventing still the return of evacuated people. Work from INVOLCAN has concluded that the amount of CO2 per km2 is around 30 times higher than the average along the whole of the Cumbre Vieja ridge, although the levels in Puerto Naos are lower than those in La Bombilla.

This week, Fernández de la Puente, the deputy of Ciudadanos in the Parliament of the Canary Islands, has requested to the Minister for Finance for clarification for many families who have lost all their properties to the eruption do not know what will happen to the mortgages, charges, seizures or tax sanctions that existed on homes that no longer exist.

On Wednesday, the Cabildo de La Palma further reduced the exclusion zone around the volcano, and has mapped for the first time the restricted areas, where limited access is available for people such as scientists and irrigators. The restricted areas include parts of La Bombilla and Puerto Noas and also areas isolated by the lava flows between Montaña Todoque and Montaña La Laguna.

A comprehensive summary of the aid spending so far in La Palma has been published by El Time, indicating that €457 million has been delivered to those affected by the volcano. €205.6 million of this is reported to have been spent on housing and accommodation, whilst other significant investments include €83 million to employment support, €61 million to the Employment and Training Plan (creating 1,600 jobs), and €62 million to affected businesses, including €14.63 million...

In the area of Las Hoyas, near where the lava flows famously flowed down the cliffs onto the lava delta formed by the 1949 eruption, more areas have been reopened for restricted use by farmers and irrigators to tend to crops in the area. 37 more fanegas (1 fanega = 1.59 acres) have been opened in addition to the 87 which have recently been opened.

For the first time since September, controlled access to Puerto Naos for some residents was allowed. This was supervised and residents had a maximum of 45 minutes in the area, only when gas concentrations were low enough. Both Puerto Naos and La Bombilla remain evacuated due to persistently high CO2 concentrations, due to CO2 from cooling magma escaping through fractures in the soil caused by the earthquakes associated with the eruption, according to IGN Scientist...

After works that began the day after the eruption was declared over on the 25th December, the La Laguna crossing has been reopened to traffic, after the lava flow covering it was removed and the road was re-tarmacked to allow all vehicles to use it. This reopens a key connection to the north of the lava flow between the towns of La Laguna and Tazacorte.

Work started on the new road across the lava flows connecting La Laguna and Las Norias on Monday from both sides and has made much quicker progress than expected. The entire 3.3 km road has been slated to take around 5 months, although in just a few days almost half of the route has been completed, with 700-800m being completed in both of the current sections being worked on.

An improvement of conditions has allowed for the reduction in exclusion zones close to the lava flows. The areas opened are shown in the map provided by the Cabildo (pictures 1 and 2), however La Bombilla and Puerto Naos still remain in the exclusion zone, due to continuing high CO2 levels being recorded in the area.

Since the 24th, earthquake activity has increased in La Palma, although according to IGN Spain and INVOLCAN these earthquakes are from a hydrothermal source, to do with the high-pressure circulation of water at shallow depths beneath the surface, rather than a magmatic source. As of the 25th, there have been approximately 70 earthquakes between 10-15 km depth peaking at a mbLg 3.1, and they can be differentiated from magmatic earthquakes due to their different frequencies.

Reconstruction and recovery continue on La Palma, with some of the latest news being the Island Council of La Palma announcing that €10 million from the donations they have received will be mobilised to families registered in the single registry who have lost their homes to the volcano. The aid will total €10,000 per family and will supplement other aid families may have already received for reconstruction.

After some stagnation due to safety checks, the first road across the lava flow has been opened to local residents. The road, which crosses about 200 m of relatively thin flows to the northwest of Montaña La Laguna, opens access to a small number of houses and large amounts of farmland that were previously isolated.

After a couple weeks without forward progress, work on some of the new tracks across the lava flows, especially the one between along the coast La Laguna and Las Norias, could resume in the coming days. Work had stopped due to the need for studies of the safety and stability of the thicker parts of the lava flows where unstable lava tubes may exist: these studies have been undertaken by the Geological and Mining Institute...

The recovery of La Palma continues after the downgrade from the red alert level to the yellow level on the 31st January, which switched management of the recovery from the Canary Islands Government to the Island Council of La Palma. Despite the reduction in alert level, evacuees from the La Bombilla and Puerto Naos areas near the coast directly to the south of the lava flows remain unable to return due to very high levels...

In the last week, the island of La Palma has taken further steps towards its recovery from the volcanic eruption. Firstly, on the 19th January, it was announced by the Maritime authorities that the maritime exclusion zones off the western coast of La Palma would be reduced from two nautical miles to half a nautical mile between the towns of La Bombilla and San Borodón.