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Volcano eruption on La Palma, my neighbor island


DocRob

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8 minutes ago, GazzaS said:

Some great pics, Rob.  I was wondering about what has been happening there.

After a week with a slight reduction in volcanic activity, everything is back to full go since two days. Because there are only a few new lava streams, there is not so much new damage to houses or plantations. Several lava streams have arrived the Atlantic Ocean and form a new peninsula. By doing so there it develops a huge amount of sulfur dioxide.
I read last weak, that the SD emission up to now equals the amount of the same gas produced by all European countries in 2019.
What the people of La Palma fear most in the moment is rain, which would soak the sometimes meter thick ash on the roofs and will lead to collapsing buildings. The other fear is concerned to seismic activities. Up to now, the strongest earthquakes were about 5,0 and you could feel these on my island too.

Cheers Rob

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46 minutes ago, DocRob said:

After a week with a slight reduction in volcanic activity, everything is back to full go since two days. Because there are only a few new lava streams, there is not so much new damage to houses or plantations. Several lava streams have arrived the Atlantic Ocean and form a new peninsula. By doing so there it develops a huge amount of sulfur dioxide.
I read last weak, that the SD emission up to now equals the amount of the same gas produced by all European countries in 2019.
What the people of La Palma fear most in the moment is rain, which would soak the sometimes meter thick ash on the roofs and will lead to collapsing buildings. The other fear is concerned to seismic activities. Up to now, the strongest earthquakes were about 5,0 and you could feel these on my island too.

Cheers Rob

Bummer.  I hope the volcano settles.

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3 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Rob

just saw the latest news videos on the lava flows and volcanic eruptions - scary and hoping there is no loss of life. The devastation is terrible and saddening  to see.

It is terrible Peter and there is no end in sight. One man lost his life in an accident so far. The roof, he was freeing of the ashes collapsed under him. A fear which is growing now, with a rain forecast for the next days. 
On Saturday night, I took out my camera, tele lens and tripod and made some pics with the very clear weather, we had then. You can see traces of the lava stream, most of them hidden by mountains from our angle. 

P1160157.thumb.JPG.7eaf146135ecb091d4252aecbb033eb3.JPG

Cheers Rob

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I sure feel for the folks having to deal with that mess. I have some experience with it (though not as extreme as this!) back in 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew in Washington State. I was 11 years old and remember it well. We were far enough east to avoid the worst of it, but it went blacker than night at noon, and dropped about 4 inches of ash and pulverized pumice on us, and the whole world smelled like sulfur. It took weeks to get it off of, and out of, stuff enough to get back to normal. I can't imagine dealing with a METER or more of it, holy cow! That 4 inches of ash is still noticable in our lives 41 years later, in odd little places like the crevices in roof shingles, siding, old cars, etc. The building I work in everyday was being built about that time, and whenever the wind blows hard, the wood shake roof above my desk will vibrate just enough to sift trapped sand leftover from the ash down past the rafters and beam above me and rain a little bit of fine sand on my desk. I have to sweep it off every now and then and remember that day. The lives of these poor folks on La Palma will never be quite the same.

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22 hours ago, biggtim said:

I sure feel for the folks having to deal with that mess. I have some experience with it (though not as extreme as this!) back in 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew in Washington State. I was 11 years old and remember it well. We were far enough east to avoid the worst of it, but it went blacker than night at noon, and dropped about 4 inches of ash and pulverized pumice on us, and the whole world smelled like sulfur. It took weeks to get it off of, and out of, stuff enough to get back to normal. I can't imagine dealing with a METER or more of it, holy cow! That 4 inches of ash is still noticable in our lives 41 years later, in odd little places like the crevices in roof shingles, siding, old cars, etc. The building I work in everyday was being built about that time, and whenever the wind blows hard, the wood shake roof above my desk will vibrate just enough to sift trapped sand leftover from the ash down past the rafters and beam above me and rain a little bit of fine sand on my desk. I have to sweep it off every now and then and remember that day. The lives of these poor folks on La Palma will never be quite the same.

Thank you for sharing your feelings about the Mt. St. Helens eruption. I remember it quite well, as I was only a few years older than you and read a lot about it by the time. Luckily the La Palma volcano doesn't have such an explosive potential, but the sheer amount of gas, ash and lava emitted by the volcano is frightening. Some houses close to the eruption area are completely buried into the ash, with only the chimneys peaking out. For Friday, there is a heavy rain forecast, which will make the situation even worse.

I have no idea, how all that will be cleaned up. Like your experiences tell, the ash is very fine and settles everywhere. Due to constant winds, we got mostly spared on the neighbor island. We had only one day with lots of ashes in these two month and some everyday, which I can evaluate due to my white Jeepometer :D.

The worst for the people of La Palma beside the loss of homes and goods, is the psychological stress caused by permanent earthquakes, fire, roaring eruption noises and gas pollution. Even on my island, there seems to be an untypical high stress level over the last few weeks and we are on the lucky side of the eruption.

Cheers Rob

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  • 1 month later...

Happy New Year and to us it's even more happy as the volcano eruption on La Palma is over. There is no activity since almost two weeks and the people of La Palma can continue to rebuild their houses and farms and clean the ashes.

We have a kind of small heat wave in the moment and today it is a perfect day, with very good sight and no wind and La Palma looks like it ever looked before the volcano and there is no huge cloud of smoke and ash over the island.

Cheers Rob

P1160213.thumb.JPG.e1afae9f062d93f233ad89de29329c92.JPG 

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