They calculate that the magma pocket has a dimension of 400 cubic kilometers The magma reserve is probably the same one that has caused all the historical eruptions Experts assure that it can cause new eruptions in the future A team of researchers led by Lucca D’Auria, from the Canary Institute of Volcanology (Involcan), has put figures to the great reserve of magma located under the island of La Palma from which several volcanoes have been supplied: about 400 cubic kilometers of material. The Tajogaite volcano emitted during its 85 days of eruption ( September 19-December 13, 2021) about 215 million cubic meters (0.215 km3), in the absence of counting ashes and other pyroclasts; that is, 0.05% of that large reserve. A week ago, Involcan reported the discovery of this reservoir, which the journal Scientific Reports has echoed in an article also signed by researchers from the University of Granada and the Institute Trofimuk Department of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics of the Russian Royal Academy of Sciences. Nemesio Pérez, director of Involcan, points out to Efe the importance of this study on the deep structure of La Palma and the discovery of this large reservoir, which, he underlines, does not not only fed the Tajogaite but the rest of the historical eruptions on the island, and possibly also those prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the fifteenth century. The calculation of those 400 cubic kilometers of magma is a “conservative estimate”, it is points out in the study, and the formation of this large reserve under La Palma has occurred continuously over about two million years. Among its conclusions, the team of researchers warns that given the env erformation of the reservoir “it is not possible to rule out” that this magmatic system could generate “new eruptions in the future” in La Palma. Additionally, the work carried out in the monitoring and analysis of seismicity and the obtaining of high-resolution images of the interior of the Earth under La Palma has made it possible to verify a faster than expected evolution of the pre-eruptive phase, which in the case of Tajogaite was seven days. And for this reason, the researchers point out, decision-making in a volcanic emergency should never be based on more in constant trends, since “unexpected changes” can occur at any time. Involcan considers this work “an unprecedented milestone” because it was possible to track the entire eruptive process inside the Earth, monitoring the path followed by the magma to the surface. The eruption of Tajogaite was “a very accelerated and energetic process”, since the magma rose about 10 kilometers to the surface in just seven days. The precursor phase took place between October 2017 and August 2021, when different seismic swarms were produced, with hypocenters located at depths of between 10 and 25 kilometers. It was just a week before the eruption when “a rapid migration” of seismicity, which points to the rise of the magma, first vertically and then diagonally as it encounters less resistance from the ground until it reaches the surface.