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4.6-degree earthquake, the most powerful since the origin of the volcano's eruption on La Palma
The activity of the La Palma volcano erupted on Sunday, September 19 at around 3:15 p.m., since then it has remained in constant activity where it seems to take much more strength.
According to experts, the end of this volcanic activity does not seem to be near the end.
Yesterday, Friday, several earthquakes were felt that caused the overflow of its main stream, accentuating much more for the southern area, in fact, the lava was seen going down with great fluidity, and at the end of yesterday, gases, pyroclasts, were emitted, but does not wash.
On the other hand, the director of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (PEVOLCA) has pointed out that despite this new overflow, the flows have been losing some strength, which indicates that mobility on the ground has been decreasing.
The La Palma volcano and its destructive power
Since the Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted and until yesterday, more than 80 million cubic meters of lava have been expelled, as reported by PEVOLCA, it has around 1,817 buildings destroyed and the surface that has been covered by the lava is 732.5 hectares.
Deformations in the land of more than five centimeters due to the eruption of the volcano
PEVOLCA spokeswoman MarÃa José Blanco explained that the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano has been causing a specific deformation of the terrain in a town near the crater, which exceeds five centimeters.
The La Laguna soccer field has been submerged by the lava from the volcano
The magma from the La Palma volcano has submerged the La Laguna soccer field, a playing field where the Argual, Fuencaliente and Tanqueta soccer clubs played.
As this playing field has been totally destroyed, for now we only have to wait for the lava to go down in all these places that have been seriously affected by the new lava flow from the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
Binter paralyzes all flights with La Palma for today Saturday
The eruption of the volcano has caused a fairly deep cloud of ash, which has forced the flight company Binter to temporarily cancel all flights with the island for today, as reported in a statement by the airline, which continues to study the situation in detail to resume flights when it can operate safely.
On the morning of this Saturday, the company reported that the latest evolution of the ash cloud had forced it to temporarily paralyze flights until 12:59 p.m.
However, they later pointed out that said stoppage would last for the entire day today.
A total of 34 operations with La Palma airport were scheduled for this day, and this morning 16 corresponding flights have already been canceled due to the ash cloud that interferes with the visibility of the flights.
Despite this, the airport remains operational to this day.
16 flights canceled even though the airport remains operational
There are already several airlines that have canceled their flights to La Palma, so far a total of 16 flights have been canceled due to the ash from the volcano, despite this the airport remains operational as Aena has pointed out.
According to the statement from Spanish Airports and Area Navigation (Aena), the La Palma airport is still operational, although they invite travelers who are going to travel today to check the status of their flight.
On the other hand, Canaryfly and Binter airlines have already announced the cancellation of all their trips this morning, where flights to the Spanish capital and Barcelona have been affected.
Despite the fact that the airport is operational, the order to cancel the flights has been taken by the companies based on their parameters and observations.
The rest of the Canary Islands airports also continue to operate.
Higher lava flow emissions and less ash cloud
Until now, the eruption continues to dominate the effusive phase, where there are much more lava flow emissions and less ash. During the night of this Friday a new eruptive mouth was opened to the southeast.
In this way, it is believed that the two streams located south of the La Laguna mountain may meet a final destination at sea.
Both streams are located 1 km from the coastal area and the forecast is that they will reach the sea forming a new strip, although this will depend on the orography and the final trajectory. Although the exact direction for now is complex to evaluate.
Regarding the meteorological conditions that the following days, an atmospheric stability and a weak wind are estimated, which would provide an unfavorable scenario from the point of view of air quality.
As for seismicity, it is almost nil at the surface level, most are at depths greater than 20 km, although deep-focus seismicity gains importance, both due to its magnitudes and the frequency they reach.
Currently, there are many probabilities that there will be some earthquakes above 4.5 degrees and in the last hours there have been around 30 earthquakes, with a magnitude of 4.6.
Yesterday morning the steps to the irrigators of the agricultural areas in the La Laguna area were suspended.
For now, there has been no talk of making new evacuations in the short term, so far a total of 7,000 people have been evacuated from the area.