On October 26, 1971, the volcano Cumbre Vieja in the Canary Islands began an eruption that lasted more than three weeks. It was preceded by several days of seismic activity, during which up to 4 movements of the earth’s crust were recorded per minute. The day before the eruption hit a strong tremor.
The volcanological association of the Canary Islands says that the earthquake was so intense that the TVs in the houses moved. The community also writes on its Facebook page: “The next day the shocks continued, but from mid-morning to 3 pm there was a lull.”
“There were strong underground noises, the ground opened, forming a crack several hundred meters long, through which magma began to flow.” The eruption that began on the crater of Teneghia did not stop until November 18 and caused a large-scale evacuation.
Now fears about the explosion of the volcano on the island of Palma appeared again, as the region was shaken by a series of tremors. Two separate seismic swarms hit the Canary Islands, including 44 earthquakes that occurred over 14 hours on October 12. The strongest earth trembling was recorded in the area around the hotel “Tenegia Princes”, where the soil moved 1 cm to the south and 3.5 cm up.
Scientist Stefan Scheller says: “We believe that the accumulation of magma lies below the seismic swarm and, thus, raises the earth above itself. The circular elevation of a radius of 7 km around the center contains about 5 million cubic meters of elevated rock, which is approximately 12.5 million tons. ”
Experts in the region do not attach much importance to recent activity. However, the team of scientists is now in the region, assessing the volcano. The measurements are carried out 3 times a week at 4 different points of Cumbre Vieja.
Experts from the University of California (USA) and the University College of London (UK) say that if the sleeping but active Cumbre Vieja returns to life, the western slope of the mountain may collapse into the ocean.
Cumbre Vieja, whose height is 1949 meters, is one of the most active volcanoes of the Canary Islands.
