Canary Island
Strongest quake since volcanic eruption on La Palma
Ash clouds rise from the volcano. Photo: Emilio Morenatti / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
There are dozens of earthquakes on La Palma every day, but they do not pose any great danger. But now the Canary Island was shaken by a stronger quake.
The Canary Island of La Palma has been shaken by the strongest earthquake since the volcanic eruption almost six weeks ago.
The tremors in the early Saturday morning had a strength of 5.0 and were felt all over La Palma and partly on three other Canary Islands, Tenerife, La Gomera and El Hierro, reported the state television broadcaster RTVE, citing the Spanish geographic Institute (IGN).
No significant damage was reported. Since the volcanic eruption there have been dozens of tremors on La Palma every day. Since all tremors continue to take place at depths of well over 30 kilometers, according to experts they do not represent a significant danger. However, they indicate that the volcano on the Cumbre Vieja mountain range in the south of the Atlantic island off the west coast of Africa will still be some time will stay active.
This is not necessarily bad news for the economy of the small Spanish island with approx. 85,000 inhabitants – because the volcano has now become a major tourist attraction that attracts a particularly large number of visitors on this “long weekend” with the public holiday on Monday (All Saints’ Day) so RTVE. However, official figures were initially not available.
Since the volcano erupted again on September 19 for the first time in 50 years, the lava, some of which was almost 1,300 degrees Celsius, has completely destroyed more than 2,500 buildings, as the European Earth observation system Copernicus announced on Saturday. Accordingly, a total of 946.5 hectares were covered by a meter-thick layer of lava. This area corresponds to approximately 1,300 soccer fields. More than 7,000 residents have had to be brought to safety since the volcano erupted. For a few days now, the lava flows have only been moving very slowly towards the coast.