LIVE | La Palma volcano eruption will last longer than expected | PHOTOS

The eruptions of the volcano on the Canary Island of La Palma They will be more durable than would be desired, since others took place for almost two months, according to the expert Eduardo Martínez de Pisón predicted this Thursday.

Martínez de Pisón, director of the Landscape Institute of the Duques de Soria Foundation, began this afternoon in the Spanish city of Soria a new edition of the Landscape Institute seminar, entitled “Landscape. Experiences and experiences ”, in which he presented the conclusions of his recent trip to La Palma for three days, accompanied by Carmen Romero, professor of Physical Geography at the University of La Laguna, whose thesis he directed.

The Emeritus Professor of Geography at the Autonomous University of Madrid, geographer, writer and mountaineer, limited the impact of the volcano to ten percent of the surface of La Palma, but pointed out that it is affecting a highly populated area, which is a drama .

“At the moment, the volcano is stable. It is mature, working, and has time, but you cannot create expectations. Although it will be more durable than we would like ”, warned.

In this sense, remember that there were eruptions in The Palm that were registered for almost two months, “and it would be nothing particular if this was one more.”

However, Martínez de Pisón, who was a professor at the University of La Laguna and witnessed the Teneguía eruption in 1971, recalls that there are not enough methods or knowledge to predict how long an eruption will last.

Martínez de Pisón pointed out that, if the volcanic eruption had come from the other side, the damage would have been much less, as it is a more rugged and forested area.

In addition, he expressed his admiration for the inhabitants of La Palma, for presenting “a stoicism” in this eruption, which has been reflected in an “extraordinary” behavior and which, in his opinion, deserves a tribute.

“Seeing people taking things out of their house makes your heart shrink. I have lived it and I have seen people carrying things on their shoulders and taking out the chickens. They are very stoic people and practically everyone has behaved very well ”, he stressed.

The lagoon in danger

The inhabitants of the Canary Island of The Palm they follow with expectation the evolution of the two lava flows that penetrated yesterday in the evicted neighborhood of The lagoon and that, converted today into one, seem to take a direction that would move away from that nucleus to head towards the mountain.

That is the least damaging option for this neighborhood, which in the last hours is experiencing the threat of disappearing buried under the lava of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which erupted since last September 19, as happened a few weeks ago to the one of Todoque.

However, the Volcanic Emergency Plan of the Canary Islands (Pevolca), which monitors the eruption and establishes the security measures around it, considers a second option: that these flows, now united in a single one that reaches peaks of 1,150 degrees, they continue to overcome the different troughs that they find in their path and end up running along the coastal road, which would cause greater damage.

In anticipation of this scenario, it was decided to evacuate on Wednesday afternoon, urgently and preventively, the inhabitants of several neighborhoods in which there are about 150 people registered.

In reality, there were about 45 evacuated, since the rest had left by their own means hours or days before the crisis committee made this determination.

In total, there are already about 7,000 people who have had to leave their homes at some point since the beginning of the eruption, on September 19.

Regarding the laundry that had approached the sea and that could cause the confinement of the entire municipality of Tazacorte due to the possible emission of toxic gases in contact with ocean water, the director of Pevolca, Miguel Ángel Morcuende, said this Thursday that it has received a “minimal” contribution of lava in the last hours and that it is practically in the same position as almost a week ago, about 120 or 130 meters from the coast.

SULFUR DIOXIDE IN THE CARIBBEAN

According to the latest measurements from the European Copernicus satellite system, made at midnight on Wednesday, the devastated area is already 866.1 hectares and 2,185 buildings and 62.6 kilometers of roads have been destroyed.

That same system is following the evolution of the great plumes of sulfur dioxide that the volcano expels. According to their data, at first they traveled mainly North Africa and southern European countries to later reach North and West Europe.

However, the wind direction changed in early October and the SO2 plumes traveled a distance of approximately 5,000 kilometers to the Caribbean, which recorded episodes of haze and poor air quality in Puerto Rico and other areas between the 8th and 10th. October.

This Thursday, the emission of sulfur dioxide is 2,710 tons per day and the diffuse emission of carbon dioxide stands at 663 tons per day, with a downward trend in the last eight days.

Air quality is reasonably good, Pevolca pointed out, although suspended particles continue in the places closest to the eruption, and high values ​​have been occasionally registered in the northwest of the island.

Regarding the earthquakes associated with the eruption, the scientific spokesperson for Pevolca, María José Blanco, indicated that the number of deep events has decreased, but their magnitude remains high, which is worrying because there could be earthquakes of intensity VI on a scale from I to XII. These are those that are considered “slightly harmful”, as they can cause displacement or falls of small objects.

THE MYSTERY OF THE DOGS RESCUED BY THE “A TEAM”

One of the stories that had been concentrating attention in recent days, the rescue operation with drones of four hounds that had been isolated by lava for days, had an unexpected outcome today.

After yesterday the reconnaissance devices found no trace of the dogs in the area where they had been seen and the rescuers assumed that they had hidden to protect themselves from the high temperatures, today it has been known that the dogs have not been there since at least two days ago and that they were rescued by unknown persons who entered the exclusion zone marked by the authorities.

“Force La Palma. Dogs are fine. ‘A’ Team ”, is the message that someone left written on a canvas placed in the pond where the dogs had been seen days ago, as shown in a video probably uploaded by its authors last night to the YouTube social network.

Aerocámaras, the company that prepared the rescue, not only confirms that the message of the supposed rescuers is where the video that runs on social networks tells that it is, but that there are footprints of people on the ash around it, irrefutable proof that someone went in there.

The authorities have insisted today on the call not to travel through the exclusion zones due to the emanation of gases and high temperatures, in addition to the fact that the circulation itself is unviable or very dangerous.

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