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- A volcano on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has begun spitting out lava again, destroying homes, banana plantations and churches
- Lava flowed down the mountainside from the Cumbre Vieja volcano without explosions
- Just eight days ago, the volcano erupted on the island, causing evacuations in villages
- If the lava hits the sea it is likely to trigger explosions and emit clouds of chlorine gas
A volcano on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has began spitting out lava again.
Spurts of lava came from the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the early evening and went down the mountainside after a period of several hours without explosions.
Just eight days ago, the volcano erupted on the island, causing evacuations in villages.
LIVE: Smoke rises above Spain’s La Palma volcano as lava nears sea https://t.co/SZfu6H71Te
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 27, 2021
Since then, the lava has been slowly flowing down the volcano’s western side towards the sea, destroying more than 500 houses as well as churches and banana plantations.
Spanish property portal, Idealista, expects the damage to be around €178 million (around A$285 million).
If the lava hits the sea it is likely to trigger explosions and emit clouds of chlorine gas. However authorities said they could not be sure if the lava would reach the Atlantic ocean.
About 300 local residents in the coastal areas of San Borondon, Marina Alta and Baja and La Condesa have been confined to their homes.
This false color SkySat image captured lava snaking through La Palma after the recent Cumbre Vieja Volcano eruption. pic.twitter.com/3NjD0sSiLn
— Planet (@planet) September 27, 2021
Flights to and from the island remained closed, despite emergency workers cleaning ash from the airport runway.
“Activating and deactivating is logical, natural in the evolution of Strombolian volcanoes,” Director of the Pevolca response committee, Miguel Angel Morcuende told Reuters.
