New mapping to reveal accurate volcanic emissions
The volcanic eruption of Cumbre Vieja has become the most significant in the last five centuries on La Palma. So far, it has covered an area of more than 900 hectares, according to the European Copernicus system.
Regarding how much material, including pyroclast rock and lava, this volcano has emitted since the eruption began, the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca) has commissioned updated mapping of the Aridane Valley. A new digital terrain model will now be created to determine the exact height of the lava flows and ash mountains.
Carmen Lopez, from the National Geographic Institute (IGN), has said that the estimates made so far from thermometry have been “very inaccurate”. The range of values oscillates between 50 and 100 million. The spokesman for the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, David Calvo, said that the figure stands this week at about 120 million cubic meters.
Faced with this variation in estimates, scientists need to have a more reliable tool, hence this latest move.