Volcano still rampaging after 5 days
TODOQUE, Canary Islands – A volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands kept nerves on edge Friday for a fifth day since it erupted, producing loud explosions, a huge ash cloud and cracking open a new fissure that spewed out more fiery molten rock.
The archipelago’s emergency services ordered the evacuation of scores of people from three villages on the island of La Palma and ordered residents to stay indoors in another. Already this week, almost 7,000 people have had to leave their homes.
Loud bangs from the volcano’s mouth sent shock waves echoing across the hillsides. Explosions hurled molten rock and ash over a wide expanse. As a precaution, emergency services pulled back from the area.
Regional airline Binter temporarily halted flights due to a huge ash cloud that rose almost 4 miles into the sky.
More encouragingly, Spain’s National Geographic Institute said it hadn’t recorded any earthquakes in the area for 24 hours, after registering 1,130 over the past week amid intense seismic activity before and after the eruption on the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge.
Also, the advance of the main river of lava slithering toward the sea slowed to about 3 feet per hour.
Both of the main lava flows are at least 33 feet high at their leading edges and have been destroying houses, farmland and infrastructure in their path since Sunday.
The lava has destroyed almost 400 buildings, including many homes, on the western side of La Palma, an island of 85,000 people, a European Union monitoring program said.