In images, in pictures. Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canaries: new lava flows plunge into the ocean – South West

After traveling six kilometers since the eruption began eleven days ago, devastating everything in its path, the lava flow reached the sea overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday. Scientists estimate that the volcano has spat out more than 80 million cubic meters of lava since the eruption began.

Falling from a cliff in a rare sight, the lava solidifies to create a sort of peninsula. This advance covers an area of ​​nearly twenty hectares.

Two new mouths releasing rivers of lava appeared during the night of Thursday to Friday on the slopes of the volcano, raising fears of a strong deterioration in the quality of the air in the municipalities located near the coast.

Twelve days after the start of the eruption of Cumbre vieja, in total, lava now covers 476 hectares of this island which makes about 70,000 hectares.

The eruption, which left no people dead or injured, evacuated about 6,000 of the island’s 85,000 residents, and lava has destroyed 855 buildings, or 201 more in the past 28 hours.

Toxic gases

Feared by experts, the meeting between lava and sea did not lead to the most feared effects such as explosions of volcanic material. But on the other hand, it produced potentially toxic gases.

“The sea water is a little over 20 degrees and the magma over 1,100 degrees” and their meeting “has for an effect an immediate change: the magma solidifies and enormous quantities of sea water evaporate, giving rise to clouds which contain chlorine, ”explained Arnau Folch, vulcanologist at CSIC, the higher council for scientific research.

In order to avoid poisoning, a safety perimeter with a radius of 3.5 kilometers has been set up as well as a maritime exclusion zone of two nautical miles. The island’s government has also asked residents of several neighborhoods in Tazacorte, a town where lava has flowed into the sea, to seal themselves in their homes.

According to the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca), these measures could be extended on Friday to two other municipalities, El Paso and Los Llanos de Aridane, due to a possible deterioration in air quality.

According to the National Institute of Toxicology, the concentration of sulfur dioxide rose for the first time Thursday afternoon in Tazacorte, as ash particles increased in density in Santa Cruz de La Palma. However, the authorities want to be reassuring at this stage about the quality of the air.

On Thursday, the island’s farmers were thus authorized to join farms outside the security perimeter to collect bananas, one of La Palma’s main resources, or to irrigate crops.

Air links with the island of La Palma, which had partially restarted Wednesday after four days of interruption, have also returned to normal, with the resumption of flights operated by Iberia.