Volcanic ash makes La Palma airport inoperative

La Palma airport is inoperative this Saturday morning, November 20, due to the accumulation of ash from the volcano, according to AENA, while the rest of the airports in the Canary Islands remain open with no new developments.

The airline Binter has already announced the temporary cancellation of its connections to La Palma at least until the 13.00 flight included, while it continues to evaluate the situation.

The Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, held a meeting this Saturday with researchers from the various centres of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) that are monitoring the eruptive crisis on the island of La Palma on a daily basis.

The meeting dealt with issues affecting both air quality and biodiversity on the island, especially in areas close to the volcanic cone, also an assessment as to how long La Palma airport will be inoperative. Personnel are working to clear the airport as quickly as possible.

El personal del #Aeropuerto de #LaPalma desarrolla labores de limpieza de la ceniza volcánica acumulada.

👉🏼Trabajamos para poder recuperar la operatividad cuanto antes.#VolcánLaPalma #ErupciónLaPalma #FuerzaLaPalma pic.twitter.com/JafJOJ58sd

— Aena (@aena) November 20, 2021

Downward trend

It seems that, two months after the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary island of La Palma began, there is a downward trend in several of the parameters that measure its activity, such as ground deformation and sulphur dioxide emissions, after having recorded this week a spike in the number of earthquakes, with 300 earthquakes in 24 hours, the highest number of earthquakes in a single day since it began on September 19.

Three lava flows

Lava from the Cumbre Vieja volcano has already affected more than 1,000 hectares on the island, and has destroyed more than 2,600 buildings in its path, according to data from the European satellite programme Copernicus. It has also formed a gorge of more than 41 hectares that continues to grow, fed by three lava flows.

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