September 26, 2021
A slow-moving wall of basaltic lava is bulldozing its way through neighborhoods on among the Canary Islands.
After Cumbre Vieja divided open and began emerging on September 19, 2021, a slow-moving wall of basaltic lava started bulldozing its way through populated parts of La Palma. Lava circulations have damaged nearly 400 homes, buried dozens of kilometers of roads, and taken in farmland as molten rock sneaks down the western flank of the volcanic island toward the ocean.
The Operational Land Imager ( OLI) on Landsat 8 captured a natural-color image (above) of lava streaming through the communities of El Paraiso and Todoque on September 26, 2021 Though the inside of the lava flow was hot and molten, cooling on the surface left a dark crust that made the flow appear black in natural-color imagery. Observations of infrared wavelengths (second image listed below) expose the hottest parts of the circulation.
The within of the lava flow was hot and molten, cooling on the surface area left a dark crust that made the circulation appear black in natural-color images. Observations of infrared wavelengths (2nd image below) reveal the most popular parts of the flow.
September 26, 2021.
A number of the white rectangle-shaped functions near the coast are greenhouses. The dark green locations along the coast are crops, likely fields of bananas. The volcanic plume streaming towards the northeast includes a mix of ash, sulfur dioxide, and other volcanic gases.
A lull in activity in the early morning on September 27 suggested that the eruption might be winding down, but explosive activity resumed later on in the day, according to the Volcanology Institute of the Canary Islands (INVOLCAN). Specialists from INVOLCAN have shown that the current eruption could continue for weeks to months.
Cumbre Vieja last erupted 50 years earlier. The most current eruption in the Canary Islands occurred in 2011, when an undersea vent at El Hierro came to life.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, utilizing Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.
By Adam Voiland, NASA Earth Observatory
September 29, 2021
Many of the white rectangular functions near the coast are greenhouses.
