The Cumbre Vieja volcano exploded on Spain’s Canary Island on Sunday, spewing lava, plumes of smoke, and prompting the evacuation of almost 5,000 residents.
According to the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute, the eruption occurred around 3:15 p.m. local time on a forested hill in the Cumbre Vieja National Park. Lava was seen flying hundreds of meters into the sky and flowing onto fields and waterways towards communities, according to video footage.
- Later, with lava edging down the hillside from five fissures, the municipality ordered the evacuation of four villages.
- Fountains of lava and rivers of molten rock have been filmed spewing hundreds of metres into the sky from Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands. The volcano is one of the most active in the world and has been erupting for several weeks.
- The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, arrived in La Palma for talks with the islands’ government on managing the outbreak of Mount Etna. “We have all the resources [to deal with the eruption] and all the troops, the citizens can rest easy,” he said.
- The eruption, according to Stavros Meletlidis, a doctor of volcanology at the Spanish Geographical Institute, has ripped five holes in the mountainside and he is unsure how long it will persist.
- “We have to measure the lava every day and that will help us to work it out.”
- It is one of the most active volcanic locations in the Canaries, with over 22,000 tremors in a single week.
- According to the Spanish National Geographical Institute, the first reported eruption on La Palma occurred around 1430. One man was murdered while photographing the lava flows in 1971, but no property was harmed.
- No injuries have been reported so far.
Below the real footage of volcano erupts:
