Activity continued to increase overall. During the course of the morning, two more fissures opened, one close to the original ones and another one further north of the existing vents, southeast of Tacande village, which was evacuated soon after. The opening of the vent followed rapid ground inflation in this area of 15 cm, according to unconfirmed information.
Most activity now seems to occur from the Tacande vent. It is well visible from the highway LP3 when going west after exiting the tunnel and attracts many tourists and locals alike to watch. Already, an elongated cinder cone has formed around it, and continuous lava fountains have been rising to approx. 2-300 m or more in height, producing a steam and ash plume that was rising approx. 2000 m and visible when we approached the island by airplane.
Our local correspondents who helped in recovery operations to save household items from threatened homes down from the active lava flow fronts, reported heavy ash fall in the downwind areas to the SW.
The lava flow fronts, often exceeding 10 m in height, slowed down further today but continue to widen; the largest one remains in the center of Todoque where more houses have fallen victim to the lava.
In total, the eruption has destroyed more than 320 homes and covered over 140 hectares of land by lava flows so far.