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08-12-2021, 03:48 PM
Vicente Soler: "The volcano will not sleep, it will go out and the next one will come out in another part of the island"
ANTONIO CASTILLEJO
SATURDAY, December 4, 2021
7 MINUTES
Vicente Soler Javaloyes was born in 1954 in the Alicante town of Jacarilla and is a volcanologist at the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology of the Higher Council for Scientific Research ( CSIC ), as well as a representative of this institution in Pevolca, the Volcanic Emergency Plan of the Canary Islands . There he analyzes daily the indicators of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma for 77 days . About this eruption and about many other aspects of the volcanoes of the Canary Islands we have spoken with him in 65Ymás.
QUESTION: Why does a volcano erupt?
ANSWER: All the Canary Islands are of entirely volcanic origin and when I say all I mean all the buildings, because the part that can be seen on this island of La Palma is 2,700 meters high, but under the sea there are still four kilometers of island until the ocean floor, then we already talked about 6,700 meters. And in Tenerife there are 7,700, that is, they are very large buildings built entirely by volcanic activity, just as it happens in Hawaii. The ultimate origin of the eruption is a hot spot, an anomaly, basically something that produces heat and melts the rocks of the upper mantle at great depth, creating the magma that rises by difference in density until it reaches the surface, breaking the rigid part of the island and causing an eruption. The island of La Palma itself is the product of thousands of eruptions.
Q .: Are magma and lava the same?
A .: Magma is called a molten, normally very rich in silica, that comes from the interior of the planet. When the eruption occurs and that fluid comes to the surface it is called lava, but obviously it is the same, magma when it is inside and lava when it is outside.
Q .: Can an eruption be predicted?
A .: Fortunately, contrary to what happens with large earthquakes, we can detect it before it occurs. The eruptions of the Canary Islands have always been preceded, to a greater or lesser extent, by seismic activity and land deformation. This implies that there is no possibility of prediction as such, but there is an early detection. It is highly unlikely that there will be an eruption without anyone, scientifically and instrumentally speaking, knowing about it.
Q .: When was this early detection of the current Cumbre Vieja eruption?
A .: The history of the current eruption of La Palma begins in October 2017 with the detection at great depth, above 20 kilometers, of a few small microseismic swarms lasting a couple of days, hundreds of small earthquakes only instrumentally detectable. The next swarm occurred in February 2018 and up to seven. Suddenly, on September 11, 2021, a seismic activity was recorded at 10 kilometers on the ridge of Cumbre Vieja that quickly began to move north and west and eight days later, on September 19 at 3:10 p.m. , the volcano appears. There the eruption begins and that is its temporal story.
Q .: What does it mean for science to be able to attend an eruption of these characteristics live?
A .: This is the first eruption that as a country we can observe and record in this way, with equipment and scientific capacity comparable to those of the neighboring countries. When, also on La Palma, the Teneguía volcano erupted in 1971, which was the previous eruption on land, this possibility was lost due to the backwardness the country was suffering at the time, remember that Franco was still living. This is the first time that we can do it because in the eruption of the island of El Hierro, in October 2011, we were already scientifically and instrumentally prepared, but since it was underwater, the phenomenon was not observed. There is no possibility of direct correlation between geophysical and geochemical observables and the activity of the volcano itself. This is the first time for everyone.
P .: I imagine it is very difficult to know how and when the eruption will end ...
A .: From what I have just explained, it is also clear how difficult it is to foresee how it will end. It is known that the end will be accompanied by a decrease in the emission of SO2, sulfur dioxide. We also know that the cessation of the tremor, not of all seismic activity, on the island of El Hierro continues ten years after the submarine eruption. With this I do not want to justify our apparent uncertainty, but it is, for all of us, our first eruption on land of the volcanoes of the Canary Islands since our previous experience has been in other craters on the planet. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the interior of the Earth, beyond the six or seven kilometers deep that the largest oil drilling reaches, continues to be absolutely inaccessible, there is no direct data on this except for the rocks that the volcanoes expel. All measurements are indirect, gravity, magnetic field, seismic round speed ... and this forces us to only make assumptions because we don't have any direct evidence. Just as geology has all the rocks in the world to analyze with the microscope, the interior of the planet remains inaccessible to us.
Q .: How many volcanoes are there in the Canary Islands?
A .: The idea that one has of a volcano, for example, taken from a Tintin comicIt is that of a pointed mountain that sometimes fumes smoke. This type of volcano is called a stratovolcano and they are the most abundant in the world, all of those in the Andes and the Pacific Ring of Fire are of this type. In the Canary Islands, only Teide-Pico Viejo, in the central part of Tenerife, is a stratovolcano, the rest of the historical activity, with a written account that begins in 1585, of these islands are monogenetic volcano buildings that have a beginning and an end . This Cumbre Vieja volcano will not fall asleep, it will go out and the next one will emerge elsewhere. Of stratovolcanoes in Canrarias, active volcanoes that are supposed to be small magmatic reservoirs, we can only speak of Teide. The ridges are the areas where eruptions preferably occur - on La Palma it is the Cumbre Vieja ridge,
Q .: Teide is one of the 16 potentially most dangerous volcanoes in the world according to the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) ...
A .: We are talking about the Teide-Pico Viejo complex, the Teide itself. But we have to distinguish between volcanic danger and risk. Tenerife is an island with two million inhabitants distributed in a coastal aura around the volcano and that is what makes it a high risk. As for the danger, it must be said that it is not a volcano that has frequent eruptions, the last one was around the 12th and 13th centuries and ended up building the current small crater, about 75 meters in diameter, on a peaked mountain. . Volcanoes built like this are not particularly dangerous.
Q .: What can we expect from the La Palma volcano, what would be its most predictable evolution?
A .: This volcano has broken almost all the records on La Palma, it only has one to reach. It is the volcano that has emitted the most ash, the one with the greatest volume of lava, the one that has occupied the largest surface area and only has to beat the record for the duration of the eruption of 1585 with 84 days to date. During the 436 years of eruptions on La Palma, each volcano has lasted less time than the previous one, in fact the Teneguía lasted 25 days, but this is on its way to being the first because the system is feedback and that is important because it is not about a great magmatic chamber that is going to be emptied in a single stroke in an eruption, as if it were a car tire that when punctured all the air comes out. If there is no more feedback at some point it will stop, but to this day it continues.
https://www.65ymas.com/actualidad/vicent...dEb2JTPF10
ANTONIO CASTILLEJO
SATURDAY, December 4, 2021
7 MINUTES
Vicente Soler Javaloyes was born in 1954 in the Alicante town of Jacarilla and is a volcanologist at the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology of the Higher Council for Scientific Research ( CSIC ), as well as a representative of this institution in Pevolca, the Volcanic Emergency Plan of the Canary Islands . There he analyzes daily the indicators of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma for 77 days . About this eruption and about many other aspects of the volcanoes of the Canary Islands we have spoken with him in 65Ymás.
QUESTION: Why does a volcano erupt?
ANSWER: All the Canary Islands are of entirely volcanic origin and when I say all I mean all the buildings, because the part that can be seen on this island of La Palma is 2,700 meters high, but under the sea there are still four kilometers of island until the ocean floor, then we already talked about 6,700 meters. And in Tenerife there are 7,700, that is, they are very large buildings built entirely by volcanic activity, just as it happens in Hawaii. The ultimate origin of the eruption is a hot spot, an anomaly, basically something that produces heat and melts the rocks of the upper mantle at great depth, creating the magma that rises by difference in density until it reaches the surface, breaking the rigid part of the island and causing an eruption. The island of La Palma itself is the product of thousands of eruptions.
Q .: Are magma and lava the same?
A .: Magma is called a molten, normally very rich in silica, that comes from the interior of the planet. When the eruption occurs and that fluid comes to the surface it is called lava, but obviously it is the same, magma when it is inside and lava when it is outside.
Q .: Can an eruption be predicted?
A .: Fortunately, contrary to what happens with large earthquakes, we can detect it before it occurs. The eruptions of the Canary Islands have always been preceded, to a greater or lesser extent, by seismic activity and land deformation. This implies that there is no possibility of prediction as such, but there is an early detection. It is highly unlikely that there will be an eruption without anyone, scientifically and instrumentally speaking, knowing about it.
Q .: When was this early detection of the current Cumbre Vieja eruption?
A .: The history of the current eruption of La Palma begins in October 2017 with the detection at great depth, above 20 kilometers, of a few small microseismic swarms lasting a couple of days, hundreds of small earthquakes only instrumentally detectable. The next swarm occurred in February 2018 and up to seven. Suddenly, on September 11, 2021, a seismic activity was recorded at 10 kilometers on the ridge of Cumbre Vieja that quickly began to move north and west and eight days later, on September 19 at 3:10 p.m. , the volcano appears. There the eruption begins and that is its temporal story.
Q .: What does it mean for science to be able to attend an eruption of these characteristics live?
A .: This is the first eruption that as a country we can observe and record in this way, with equipment and scientific capacity comparable to those of the neighboring countries. When, also on La Palma, the Teneguía volcano erupted in 1971, which was the previous eruption on land, this possibility was lost due to the backwardness the country was suffering at the time, remember that Franco was still living. This is the first time that we can do it because in the eruption of the island of El Hierro, in October 2011, we were already scientifically and instrumentally prepared, but since it was underwater, the phenomenon was not observed. There is no possibility of direct correlation between geophysical and geochemical observables and the activity of the volcano itself. This is the first time for everyone.
P .: I imagine it is very difficult to know how and when the eruption will end ...
A .: From what I have just explained, it is also clear how difficult it is to foresee how it will end. It is known that the end will be accompanied by a decrease in the emission of SO2, sulfur dioxide. We also know that the cessation of the tremor, not of all seismic activity, on the island of El Hierro continues ten years after the submarine eruption. With this I do not want to justify our apparent uncertainty, but it is, for all of us, our first eruption on land of the volcanoes of the Canary Islands since our previous experience has been in other craters on the planet. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the interior of the Earth, beyond the six or seven kilometers deep that the largest oil drilling reaches, continues to be absolutely inaccessible, there is no direct data on this except for the rocks that the volcanoes expel. All measurements are indirect, gravity, magnetic field, seismic round speed ... and this forces us to only make assumptions because we don't have any direct evidence. Just as geology has all the rocks in the world to analyze with the microscope, the interior of the planet remains inaccessible to us.
Q .: How many volcanoes are there in the Canary Islands?
A .: The idea that one has of a volcano, for example, taken from a Tintin comicIt is that of a pointed mountain that sometimes fumes smoke. This type of volcano is called a stratovolcano and they are the most abundant in the world, all of those in the Andes and the Pacific Ring of Fire are of this type. In the Canary Islands, only Teide-Pico Viejo, in the central part of Tenerife, is a stratovolcano, the rest of the historical activity, with a written account that begins in 1585, of these islands are monogenetic volcano buildings that have a beginning and an end . This Cumbre Vieja volcano will not fall asleep, it will go out and the next one will emerge elsewhere. Of stratovolcanoes in Canrarias, active volcanoes that are supposed to be small magmatic reservoirs, we can only speak of Teide. The ridges are the areas where eruptions preferably occur - on La Palma it is the Cumbre Vieja ridge,
Q .: Teide is one of the 16 potentially most dangerous volcanoes in the world according to the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior (IAVCEI) ...
A .: We are talking about the Teide-Pico Viejo complex, the Teide itself. But we have to distinguish between volcanic danger and risk. Tenerife is an island with two million inhabitants distributed in a coastal aura around the volcano and that is what makes it a high risk. As for the danger, it must be said that it is not a volcano that has frequent eruptions, the last one was around the 12th and 13th centuries and ended up building the current small crater, about 75 meters in diameter, on a peaked mountain. . Volcanoes built like this are not particularly dangerous.
Q .: What can we expect from the La Palma volcano, what would be its most predictable evolution?
A .: This volcano has broken almost all the records on La Palma, it only has one to reach. It is the volcano that has emitted the most ash, the one with the greatest volume of lava, the one that has occupied the largest surface area and only has to beat the record for the duration of the eruption of 1585 with 84 days to date. During the 436 years of eruptions on La Palma, each volcano has lasted less time than the previous one, in fact the Teneguía lasted 25 days, but this is on its way to being the first because the system is feedback and that is important because it is not about a great magmatic chamber that is going to be emptied in a single stroke in an eruption, as if it were a car tire that when punctured all the air comes out. If there is no more feedback at some point it will stop, but to this day it continues.
https://www.65ymas.com/actualidad/vicent...dEb2JTPF10
