Lava from Spanish island volcano rolls slowly toward the sea

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE – Lava flowing from a volcano successful Spain's Canary Islands picked up its gait connected its mode to the oversea Tuesday, but scientists said it was intolerable to estimation erstwhile the glowing watercourse of molten stone would scope the shore.

Authorities said the lava had moved connected the land of La Palma to wrong 800 meters (875 yards) of the Atlantic Ocean arsenic of Tuesday morning, 9 days aft the volcano's eruption. When it yet meets oversea water, the lava could trigger explosions and the merchandise of toxic gas.

By the afternoon, officials said assorted factors dictated the unpredictable velocity of the lava flow, including its departure from a way implicit an earlier travel that had hardened. The stream of cooled lava had helped the moving travel descent along.

“The lava cools down arsenic clip passes and it meets uneven ground, which slows it down,” said Miguel Ángel Morcuende, method manager of the Canary Islands exigency volcano effect department. “And if it comes disconnected the road it was going along, that slows it adjacent much due to the fact that it spreads retired wider.”

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A tiny elevation and a built-up country besides stood successful the lava's way.

For days, officials person nervously awaited the clip erstwhile lava from the Sept. 19 eruption reaches the Atlantic, but the volcano has been erratic. After calming down connected Monday, the volcano became much explosive again overnight.

Authorities said they don’t expect the slow-moving lava to make a ample disruption connected the coast. But Eugenio Fraile, a researcher astatine the Spanish Oceanography Institute, told Cadena Ser vigor that lone scientists wearing protective cogwheel volition beryllium wrong a information perimeter erstwhile the travel hits the ocean.

The National Geographic Institute detected six earthquakes Tuesday successful the country of the eruption, with the strongest measured astatine magnitude 2.9.

La Palma, location to astir 85,000 people, is portion of the volcanic Canary Islands, an archipelago disconnected northwest Africa. The land is astir 35 kilometers (22 miles) agelong and 20 kilometers (12 miles) wide astatine its broadest point.

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Lava from the eruption has devoured everything successful its path, destroying 589 buildings and 21 kilometers (13 miles) of roads connected La Palma. The lava present covers 258 hectares (637 acres), mostly farmland, according to a European Union outer monitoring agency.

No deaths oregon superior injuries person been reported, acknowledgment to the punctual evacuations of implicit 6,000 people.

But section radical person mislaid their homes and their livelihoods astatine the aforesaid time. Farming is 1 of the island's economical mainstays, on with tourism, and the lava and ash has ruined crops and irrigation systems, endangered aviation and poses a important wellness hazard to those nearby.

No flights went successful oregon retired of La Palma’s airdrome for a 4th consecutive time due to the fact that of a immense ash cloud. Volcanic ash is hazardous for craft engines.

The Spanish authorities announced aft its play Cabinet gathering Tuesday it's providing an contiguous assistance of 10.5 cardinal euros ($12.3 million) to bargain 107 properties to rehouse section radical and besides supply them with income aid.

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More aid, including for the rebuilding of nationalist infrastructure, volition beryllium sent erstwhile the existent exigency is over, authorities spokeswoman Isabel Rodríguez said.

The volcano has truthful acold spewed retired much than 46 cardinal cubic meters (1.6 cardinal cubic feet) of molten rock, according to the Canary Island Volcanology Institute.

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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.

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