La Palma volcano spews buildings-size lava blocks

Series of tremors on Spanish island three weeks after eruption

Blocks of molten lava as large as three-storey buildings rolled down a hillside on the Spanish island of La Palma while a series of tremors shook the ground yesterday three weeks after the volcanic eruption.

There were 21 seismic movements yesterday, with the largest measuring 3.8, the Spanish National Geological Institute (ING) said, shaking the ground in the villages of Mazo, Fuencaliente and El Paso.

The blocks of red-hot magma flowed down the side of the Cumbre Vieja volcano were the size of three-storey buildings, the Spanish Institute of Geology and Mining said yesterday.

Volcano wrecks havoc

The lava flow, with temperatures of up to 1,240 degrees Celsius, destroyed the last few buildings that remained standing in the village of Todoque, the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute said on Twitter.

There was a partial cone collapse near the volcano’s emission vent on Saturday, Stavros Meletlidis, a spokesman for ING said. “The collapse of the northern flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano has caused the release of large blocks of material and the appearance of new flows that run through areas already evacuated,” tweeted Spain’s National Security Department.

Reuters A woman climbs a hill with a child to see the Cumbre Vieja volcano as it continues to erupt in Tacande de Arriba on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain.