LIVE | Part of the main cone of the La Palma volcano collapses | PHOTOS

The main cone of the Spanish volcano on the Atlantic island of La Palma, in eruption since September 19, has partially collapsed, according to the Canary Islands Volcanological Institute reported this Saturday.

The scientific committee that advises the Volcanic Emergency Plan of La Palma (Pevolca) he insists that the strombolian eruptive process is characterized by a constant variation of the cone, or cones in this case, and that new foci may arise in the vicinity of the main eruptive center.

A video from the Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) shows the activity of four eruptive mouths with “intense and diverse” activity: emission of ash and pyroclasts, strombolian activity and profusion of lava with white degassing.

LOOK: The lava from the La Palma volcano reaches the sea and generates toxic gases | PHOTOS

In a more recent one, several active lava canals are observed on the rest of the area occupied by the different streams.

DECISIVE HOURS FOR VARIOUS NEIGHBORHOODS

The next few hours will be decisive to know the future of several neighborhoods on the Canary island of La Palma (Atlántico), evacuated since last Wednesday due to the uncertain advance of the lava that has flowed for more than a month of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.

The two lava flows that advanced with speed on Wednesday and merged into one in the La Laguna neighborhood are practically stopped but are receiving “a lot of lava input” at the rear, as confirmed by thermal imaging cameras.

The scientific committee of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca), which monitors the evolution of the eruption and coordinates security measures, foresees that sooner or later this wash, which has been gaining in height and width, will continue its approach to the sea .

There are two options: go south and go around the mountain of La Laguna, or, on the contrary, skip the existing basins and obliterate the last evicted neighborhoods: Las Martelas, Marina Alta, Marina Baja, Cuesta Zapata, San Borondón and The Countess.

SIGHT: LIVE | The cone of the La Palma volcano breaks and leaves a huge wash towards the sea | PHOTOS

At the moment, the front of this wash is detained at the La Laguna school, which is acting as a containment “wall”, and in the vicinity of the church square.

ERUPTION FOR LONG

Carmen López, director of the National Geophysical Observatory of Spain, has reported this Friday a data that invites us to think that the eruption is going to last: the measurement of sulfur dioxide emissions in the area of ​​the plume yesterday yielded a value of 28,745 tons , when it would have to oscillate between 100 and 500 a day to think about a remission.

Lava flows from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, seen from Los Llanos de Aridane on the Canary Island of La Palma on the night of October 9, 2021. (JORGE GUERRERO / AFP).

The diffuse emission of carbon dioxide associated with the Cumbre Vieja ridge continues its downward trend, and has been estimated at 633 tons per day, and the height of the plume of gases and ash has today reached 2,800 meters.

In the next few hours, a low probability of affecting the volcano cloud to the operation of the La Palma airport and the rest of the Canary Islands is expected, although it is not ruled out that fine ash reaches La Gomera and El Hierro, as well as the west of Tenerife.

WATER AND SOLIDARITY

At the same time, work is being completed to install two portable desalination plants, which together with a tanker loaned by the Government of Spain could begin to supply irrigation water to farms isolated by runoffs, especially banana plantations, the main source of wealth. of the island.

SIGHT: The dangerous chemical reaction that will occur when lava from the La Palma volcano reaches the ocean

These desalination plants are expected to start operating tomorrow, Saturday, coinciding with the fifth visit of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to the island since the eruption began, on September 19.

The displays of solidarity continue to occur through anonymous and also public gestures.

Volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands. (AFP).

King Felipe VI, during the speech he gave this Friday at the Princess of Asturias Awards ceremony, conveyed his solidarity and that of the whole of Spain to the people of La Palma, who “have seen their lives beaten in such a way dramatic and with as much helplessness as sadness ”.

“Many of them have lost everything: their houses, their lands and crops, their animals, their memories,” recalled the king. “They have asked us not to forget them and, together with all Spaniards, it will be so; we will not forget them ”.

One of the winners of this award, chef José Andrés, who has lived in the United States for years and who will donate the 50,000 euros of the award doubled with his own assets to those affected by the eruption, stressed that the island “should not be forgotten in this moment”.

Meanwhile, the Formula 1 driver Fernando Alonso will auction for the benefit of those affected by the volcano the helmet that he will use this weekend in the United States Grand Prix.

AGILITY IN RECOSTRUCTION

On the political and institutional level, the island’s authorities and the most affected municipalities asked the Government of Spain to enable administrative procedures and extraordinary urban regulations that allow any procedure in the reconstruction to be shortened.

The petition has the express support of the regional government of the Canary Islands, which also shares that it is unfeasible to address “an exceptional situation” such as the destruction caused by the eruption of La Palma through the “usual channels”.

The government spokesman, Isabel Rodríguez, was sensitive to the request because the administration should always go “at the pace of the citizens” and not behind, but she also specified that, although they are shortened, there will always be procedures to comply with to give ” transparency ”to the use of the large amount of public funds that the reconstruction of the island will require.

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