a river at 1000 ° C has already destroyed a hundred houses

The lava tongues of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which erupted on Sunday on the Spanish island of La Palma (southwest), have slowed its progress and will not reach the sea tonight, AFP reported.

“It will not reach the sea tonight, as we said,” a Canarian government spokesperson said today at a press conference, adding that “the lava flow is quite slow, it is much slower than it was initially “.

For his part, Ángel Torres, president of the regional government of the Canary Islands archipelago, located off the coast of northwest Africa, said that “we have no regrets about any human loss or bodily injury, I thinks this is the best news “during a tour with the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, who has been in La Palma since Sunday.

However, the eruption, the first to be recorded on this island since 1971, caused damage and forced 5,500 residents to leave their homes.

“For the moment, the most important thing is to ensure security” because “the volcano continues to act,” Sánchez warned. The Prime Minister has postponed the trip to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly.

Meanwhile, Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto has created controversy by recalling that hotels are open and inviting tourists to come to the island to witness “what nature has brought to La Palma”, statements which he then qualified.

When hot lava boils seawater, a series of chemical and physical reactions occur that cause columns of acid fog that can be toxic.

In addition, explosions capable of spitting rocks over 200 meters and high temperature waves that penetrate the earth can occur.

However, the regional government of the Canary Islands has clarified that it is not planning any further evacuations at this time.

The impressive lava columns destroyed trees, invaded roads and managed to get into homes, as several videos posted on social media show.

“This tongue of lava engulfs everything in its path,” Mariano Hernández Zapata, president of the local government of La Palma, described on Spanish television about the lava flows which he said could reach six meters in height.

At over 1,000 degrees Celsius, jets of fire advance at an average speed of 700 meters per hour, according to the Canary Islands Volcanic Institute (Involcan).

Technicians estimate that the volcanic gases emitted reach a height of 3,000 meters, ANSA reported.

Cumbre Vieja emits columns of smoke several hundred meters high and between 6,000 and 9,000 tonnes of sulfur dioxide per day, according to the institute.

However, the smoke has not yet caused the closure of the airspace.

In just three minutes, Angie Chaux, A neighbor of Los Llanos de Ariadne, who lives a few kilometers from the volcano, had to leave her home with her husband and three-year-old son.

“We weren’t in the house when the alert was given,” said the 27-year-old, “but when we saw, we wanted to go in and the road was closed. The police let us pass and said ‘three minutes’, ”she explained.

He entered and was only able to take the emergency backpack that the authorities had asked him to prepare.

Yahaira Garcia he was luckier: he managed to get clothes, television, a computer and some souvenirs from his house, located at the foot of the volcano, before leaving.

“My house was vibrating too much, it looked like it was going to fall”Says this woman who has not slept for two nights and laments: “We have no idea when we will be home.”

In dialogue with Telam, Gabriel Suarez Jiménez, an Argentinian who has lived in the Canary Islands since 1990, said he “infinite sadness” losses caused by the passage of volcanic lava.

The island’s economy, he explained, is based on rural tourism and the export of bananas, almonds and wines.

As for rural tourism, he stressed that it is about “holiday homes located in rural areas, old farmhouses converted into inns or tourist accommodation”.

It is estimated that the island “has more than 300 such houses”, many of which “the lava will engulf”.

In addition, La Palma is the “main banana exporting island to the Iberian Peninsula and Europe”.

In this sense, Suárez said that “a house can be rebuilt, but crops, trees and other aspects of nature will take years to recover.”

La Palma, like most of the Canary Islands, seven in total, is volcanic and “there are not a few volcanoes” on this island.

In this area is the Cumbre Vieja Natural Park, which “stands out for its craters”, and which is close to Montaña Rajada, “the exact site where the eight-mouth fissure of this volcano which continues to expel lava”. on the premises.

Located in the center of the island of La Palma – one of the seven that make up the tourist archipelago of the Canary Islands – the Cumbre Vieja volcano was under intense surveillance after recording a significant increase in its seismic activity in recent days.

According to Ángel Torres, the Cumbre Vieja would have between 17 and 20 million cubic meters of lava; therefore, the eruption will continue, although “according to the technical committee everything seems to indicate that there will be no new eruption points,” he explained in a video posted on Twitter.

The activity of Cumbre Vieja could however last “several weeks or a few months”, due to the presence of a second reserve of magma located at 20 or 30 kilometers deep, according to the scientific coordinator of the Volcanic Institute of the Canaries , Nemesio. Perez.

Of volcanic origin, the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands experienced its last eruption in 2011, this time underwater, on the island of El Hierro, causing the evacuation of hundreds of people. /telam/SIN_20210920_1816_41.txt