Nine weeks of volcanic eruption on La Palma and no end in sight

Madrid, November 22 (BUS): Nine weeks ago, a volcano on the Canary island of La Palma has been spewing lava, ash and smoke, putting an end to the most destructive eruption in the Atlantic island’s history off the west coast. From Africa is still not in sight.

State television station RTVE reported that winds pushed ash northeast over the weekend, causing the island’s airport to be closed for operations again. On Sundays, too, the island is only accessible by boat.

Since the eruption began on September 19, lava has buried 1,050 hectares so far, which lies like a dark gray crust over the landscape. The German news agency (dpa) reported that wherever it flows into the sea, a new plot of land covering more than 40 hectares has already been formed.

The devastation was massive, with 7,000 of the islands’ 85,000 residents forced to leave their homes, and about 1,500 buildings, roads, fields and banana plantations as well as greenhouses buried by lava, destroyed.
El Pais newspaper reported that the Canary Islands government estimates the damages so far at more than 900 million euros (one billion dollars).

The activity of the volcano, which has not yet been named, has been steadily declining in recent weeks. However, according to experts, an end to explosive activity is not in sight, at least in the short term.

HF