By Ron Howells • Published: 16 Oct 2021 • 11:40
La Palma in the Canary Islands hit by two pwerful earthquakes
La Palma in the Canary Islands was hit by two powerful earthquakes early Saturday morning.
Two earthquakes measuring 4.5 and 4.6 struck La Palma during the early hours of Saturday, October 16, morning. The quakes were detected by the 24-hour monitoring volcanic surveillance network of the National Geographic Institute (IGN).
During the night, a total of 37 earthquakes- geologically associated with the eruption of the La Palma volcano- were detected by the IGN. Two of them have had magnitudes greater than 4 on the *Richter scale. The maximum registered was 4.6 located southwest of the municipality of Villa de Mazo, at around 05:41 am.
The main quake, with an intensity of 4.6 and a depth of 37 km, was felt across numerous areas throughout the island. It is the largest earthquake to date.
This tremor was followed approximately an hour later (07.00 am) by another earthquake, also to southwest of Mazo, and of a 4.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. Like the previous one, it was felt in practically all the municipalities of the island.
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Volcanic eruptions on the island continue with a predominance of the effusive phase that is creating higher emissions of lava flow and less ash.
*The Richter scale is used to rate the magnitude of an earthquake — the amount of energy it releases. This is calculated using information gathered by a seismograph. The Richter scale is logarithmic, meaning that whole-number jumps indicate a tenfold increase. In this case, the increase is in wave amplitude.
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Since the eruption began on September 19, 992 buildings have been destroyed, consisting of 809 residences, 95 agricultural, 47 industrial, 22 hospitality and leisure, 8 public use and 11 others. The amount of land agricultural land affected already totals 179.3 hectares and includes 92.97 hectares of banana plantations; 50.17 hectares of vineyards and 12.21 hectares of avocados.
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Ron actually started his working career as an Ophthalmic Technician- things changed when, during a band rehearsal, his amplifier blew up and he couldn’t get it fixed so he took a course at Birmingham University and ended up doing a degree course. He built up a chain of electronics stores and sold them as a franchise over 35 years ago. After five years touring the world Ron decided to move to Spain with his wife and son, a place they had visited over the years, and only bought the villa they live in because it has a guitar-shaped swimming pool!. Playing the guitar since the age of 7, he can often be seen, (and heard!) at beach bars and clubs along the length of the coast. He has always been interested in the news and constantly thrives to present his articles in an interesting and engaging way.
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