Quote:
Originally Posted by ArronOB
Thanks for keeping us informed Fuerte Rav. We watch this occasionally on the news from nice, safe Australia.
Can you give us a bit of context to understand it better. How far away from the volcano is your island. Can you see the volcano from where you live. Is there any chance that if things get worse you will be impacted?I assume most people have left the volcano island, but are people on other islands leaving?
Are there people still living on the volcano island? If so, why?
Amazing photos.
Cheers
|
Hi Aaron, thanks for the interest and concern.
I live on Fuerteventura, on the right of the map. The volcano is erupting on La Palma, on the left of the map. As the seagull flies it is 450 kms from us.
The area of La Palma that is directly affected is shown on the map. However, the volcano is part of the Cumbre Vieja ridge which extends down the centre of the lower half of the island. Potentially any point along the ridge could erupt although at present it seems restricted to the upper end of the ridge. All the lava is flowing is flowing somewhere between North and West of the eruption point. It has reached the sea and created new land. Because of the geography of the island the lava is being channelled over to this West side. However a different eruption point could change this.
The towns/villages directly in the path of the first lava flows were evacuated. Further areas have been evacuated as the situation changes. It's estimated that only 8% of the island is directly affected (by lava). A further perimeter has been established because of the general danger and gases/air quality.
The tradewinds normally blow from the North or NE over these islands, luckily, although the wind has been very light the last few days so not clearing the air as quickly as would be liked by the La Palma inhabitants. The gases and ash are actually rising to 4-5000m though and up there the currents are moving Eastwards, so back over the island itself and over to the island of Tenerife. Last week it was detected over mainland Europe. (We are off the West coast of Africa.)
The airport on La Palma and the one in the north of Tenerife are closing and opening as conditions permit. The ferry between those 2 islands has been doubled, now running 4 times a day to keep things moving.
Surprisingly, to me, many Canary Islanders didn't believe we lived on Volcanic Islands before this happened. The last eruption was 50 years ago, in the same area of La Palma, and today's lava is actually covering a lot of that eruption's lava.
About 6000 people in the immediate vicinity have been evacuated. Many are staying with family or friends elsewhere on La Palma or neighbouring islands. About 200 people are being put up in a hotel in the next town.
The local governments are encouraging tourists to visit!
Anything to reverse the economic situation caused by Covid!!
Many hectares of banana plantations have been destroyed, and avocados, and vines. And I'm sure some of the people had orchids in their houses/gardens - were they among the treasured possessions they were able to remove before the lava arrived?
And no, we can't see the eruption from here. I can see the peak of Mta Teide on Tenerife as that is nearly 4000m high. But from that side of Tenerife, and at a lower elevation, they can only just see the top of the volcanic plume as it is on the far side of a high ridge.
Thanks again for everyone's interest and concern.
(tmoney - thanks for your message, unfortunately I can't pm for some reason at the moment!)
Linear Mode
