Luke 21:11” There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
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By Borja Suarez
LA PALMA, Spain (Reuters) – A surge in seismic activity on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma has slowed in the past day but could return at any moment, authorities said on Friday, as they kept almost half the island’s population on yellow alert for an eruption.
“The decrease in seismic activity may be transient and does not necessarily imply a halt to the reactivation,” the regional emergency services said in a statement after a meeting with politicians, volcano experts and civil defense authorities.
Scientists have recorded more than 4,000 tremors in the Cumbre Vieja national park in the south of the island, prompting authorities to declare a yellow alert for eruption on Tuesday, the second of a four-level alert system.
The yellow alert affects some 35,000 people in the regions of Fuencaliente, Los Llanos de Aridane, El Paso y Mazo.
Authorities on Friday advised people in those areas to prepare an emergency backpack with vital supplies and a mobile phone in case an evacuation is ordered.
So-called “earthquake swarms” are common on volcanic island chains such as the Canaries, said Eduardo Suarez, a volcanologist with Spain’s National Geographic Institute on neighboring Tenerife.
“What is noteworthy this time is that normally they occur between the crust and the mantle, at a depth of around 20 kilometers, now in some zones they are between 1km-3km from the surface,” he said.
More than 11 million cubic meters (388 million cubic feet) of magma have seeped into Cumbre Vieja, around a quarter of the amount expelled during the last major eruption in 1971.
(Reporting by Borja Suarez in La Palma and Nathan Allen in Madrid; Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo; Editing by Alex Richardson)
MADRID (Reuters) – Authorities on the Spanish Canary Island of La Palma have warned that a sudden increase in seismic activity could herald a volcanic eruption in the coming days or weeks.
Spain’s National Geographic Institute has detected 4,222 tremors in a so-called “earthquake swarm” in the Cumbre Vieja national park, around the Teneguia volcano in the far south of the island.
As the quakes intensified and moved closer to the surface, the Canary Island’s regional government on Tuesday put the island on a yellow alert for an eruption, the second of a four-level alert system.
It said on Thursday there was no clear evidence for an immediate eruption, though warned the situation could evolve rapidly.
“More intense earthquakes are expected in the coming days,” it said in a statement.
More than 11 million cubic meters (388 million cubic feet)of magma have seeped into Cumbre Vieja in recent days, swelling the peak by around 6 centimeters, the Volcanic Institute of the Canaries said on Thursday.
Rising sharply out of the Atlantic around 100 kilometers to the west of southern Morocco, the Canary Islands are home to Spain’s most active and best known volcanoes, including Teide in Tenerife and Timanfaya in Lanzarote.
Teneguia last erupted in 1971 – the last surface eruption to occur in Spain – while a volcano off the tiny island of El Hierro erupted underwater in 2011.
(Reporting by Nathan Allen and Emma Pinedo, editing by Inti Landauro and Steve Orlofsky)
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – More than 30,000 tremors have rocked Antarctica since the end of August, according to the University of Chile, a spike in seismic activity that has intrigued researchers who study the remote, snowbound continent.
Scientists with the university’s National Seismological Center said the small quakes – including one stronger shake of magnitude 6 – were detected in the Bransfield Strait, a 60-mile wide (96-km) ocean channel between the South Shetland Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula.
Several tectonic plates and microplates meet near the strait, leading to frequent rumbling, but the past three months have been unusual, according to the center.
“Most of the seismicity is concentrated at the beginning of the sequence, mainly during the month of September, with more than a thousand earthquakes a day,” the center said.
The shakes have become so frequent that the strait itself, once increasing in width at a rate of about 7 or 8 mm (0.30 inch) a year is now expanding 15 cm (6 inches) a year, the center said.
“It’s a 20-fold increase … which suggests that right this minute … the Shetland Islands are separating more quickly from the Antarctic peninsula,” said Sergio Barrientos, the center’s director.
The peninsula is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, and scientists closely monitor the changing climate’s impact on its icebergs and glaciers.
But climate scientist Raul Cordero of the University of Santiago said it was not yet clear how the tremors might be affecting the region’s ice.
“There’s no evidence that this kind of seismic activity … has significant effects on the stability of polar ice caps,” Cordero told Reuters.
(Reporting by Fabian Cambero and Reuters TV; Writing by Dave Sherwood; Editing by Peter Cooney)
By Terray Sylvester
PAHOA, Hawaii (Reuters) – Emergency crews said they were poised to evacuate more people as fissures kept spreading from Hawaii’s erupting Kilauea volcano, five days after it started exploding.
Around 1,700 people have already been ordered to leave their homes after lava crept into neighborhoods and deadly volcanic gases belched up through cracks in the earth.
Lava engulfs a Ford Mustang in Puna, Hawaii, U.S., May 6, 2018 in this still image obtained from social media video. WXCHASING via REUTERS
The evacuation zone could now grow as fissures are spreading into new areas on the eastern side of the Big Island, Hawaii Civic Defense Administrator Talmadge Magno told a community meeting
“If things get dicey, you got to get out,” he said. “If you live in the surrounding communities … be prepared. Evacuation could come at any time.”
Kilaueax has opened 12 volcanic vents since it started sending out fountains and rivers of lava on Thursday, officials said. Lava was not flowing from any of the vents on Monday.
Resident Heide Austin said she left her home just west of the current eruption zone after noticing small cracks appearing at the end of her driveway.
One eruption near her home “sounded like a huge blowtorch going off,” said the 77-year-old who lives alone. “That’s when I really got into a frenzy.”
Many of the evacuated people were permitted to return home during daylight hours on Sunday and Monday, during a lull in seismic activity.
Residents of a second area, Lanipuna Gardens, were barred from returning home on Monday due to deadly volcanic gases.
Leilani Estates, about 12 miles (19 km) from the volcano, was evacuated due to the risk of sulfur dioxide gas, which can be life threatening at high levels.
Puna district residents attend a community meeting during ongoing eruptions of the Kilauea Volcano at Pahoa High and Intermediate School in Pahoa, Hawaii, U.S., May 7, 2018. REUTERS/Terray Sylvester
No deaths or major injuries have been reported. At least 35 structures had been destroyed, many of them homes, officials said.
The southeast corner of the island was rocked by a powerful magnitude 6.9 earthquake on the volcano’s south flank on Friday. More earthquakes and eruptions have been forecast.
Kilauea, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, has been in constant eruption for 35 years.
(Reporting by Terray Sylvester; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines raised the alert level at its Mayon volcano on Monday after a loud explosion in the wake of increased activity made a hazardous eruption likelier, prompting authorities to close all schools and urge residents to stay indoors.
Mayon, the country’s most active volcano, has been spewing ash, lava, and pyroclastic material since Jan. 13, displacing close to 40,000 residents in the central province of Albay.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised its alert on Mayon to level 4, signifying a hazardous eruption is imminent, from level 3, which warns that such an eruption could be “weeks or even days” away.
“We strongly advise all people, both residents and tourists, to avoid the danger zone, and airlines to avoid flying near the volcano summit,” agency chief Renato Solidum told a news conference.
The danger zone around the 2,462-metre (8,077-foot) volcano has been expanded to a radius of 8 km (5 miles), he added.
Solidum said the agency had recorded increased seismic activity and “lava fountaining and a summit explosion” from Sunday night, indicating more explosions ahead, including a hazardous eruption.
A level 5 alert signifies a hazardous eruption is underway.
Albay province has run out of emergency funds and more people would be evacuated once government financial help arrived, said provincial governor Al Francis Bichara.
He ordered schools to suspend classes, amid ash fall warnings following the explosion at the volcano.
“In some areas…it’s already zero visibility, especially along the foot of the volcano,” he told CNN Philippines, adding that strong winds could carry ash to distant towns.
“(People) have to stay home and if they intend to get out of their houses, they have to wear masks,” Bichara said.
(Reporting by Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Martin Petty and Clarence Fernandez)
