The activity remains elevated. After yesterday’s surges of lava from a new fissure system south of the cone, lava fountains returned to the main vents at the cone, first in form of a round dome-shaped fountain of very liquid lava from the lower vent (see previous update with video), and later as a taller, more gas-rich jetting fountain from the summit vent which had been very active especially in the early phase of the eruption.
The latter activity has continued throughout a very stormy and rainy night and into this morning, then decreased a bit although it still produces fountains as of this update. The generated ash plumes rose to up to 3,500 m altitude and drifted east where it continues to disable the airport, now closed for 6 or 7 days in a row. Many airlines have canceled flights to La Palma altogether for the whole time up to spring next year due to the uncertainty whether the airport is operational or not, and whether they can actually fill seats. Requests to travel to the island likely have dropped massively, further damaging its economy that already suffered a very hard blow from the eruption.
A video of today’s activity at the main vent:
Más imágenes a las 12.15 hora canaria / More footage at 12.15 pm Canarian time pic.twitter.com/WQcY19aWk0
— INVOLCAN (@involcan) November 26, 2021
Seismic activity overall remains low and comparable to the past days. The National Geographic Institute (IGN) reported a total of 44 earthquakes in its latest 24-hour reporting period. 5 of them were felt by the population and the strongest one was last night’s magnitude 4.8 quake at 10.40 p.m. with a depth of 37 km.
The seismicity continues under the central area of Cumbre Vieja volcano in the same areas as before. A change in distribution of depth occurred although it is likely an effect of- most of the latest recorded earthquakes are located at depths 10-15 km and only 7 of them at depths greater than 30 km.
The amplitude of the volcanic tremor signal continues to be low, but with very significant upwards spikes corresponding to the increased lava effusion phases, one likely in progress at the time of this update as there is a new tall spike visible.
Inflation has restarted at the LP3 station closest to the vents. Likely, this means another pulse of magma underway, which (as a speculation) could be in relationship with last night’s magnitude 4.8 quake.
In the other stations, the slight deflation possibly related to deep seismicity has stabilized, IGN reported.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions were at 5,250 tons per day.
The current height of the cone was measured at 1,126 m. above sea level, but it’s likely to continue to grow even more with time.
