A French astronaut was able to record the eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, in the Canary Islands, Spain, from space. Thomas Pesquet on a European Agency mission on the International Space Station (ISS) and shared the photo yesterday on his Twitter account.
The astronaut wrote: “La Palma volcano erupts. The orange glow of the lava contrasts with the darkness of the Atlantic Ocean and makes everything even more impressive. The glow of the lava looks very close to the city lights.”
The lava destroyed nearly 200 homes, more than 6,000 people were forced to leave the city and a river of magma continued its way into the sea: these are the images left by the Cumbre Vieja volcano after The eruption of the volcano on the island of La Palma, Spain, last Sunday.
Lava is destroying everything on its way to the island’s coast in the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands, albeit at a slower rate than expected, at about 120 meters per hour. from Lava volcano eruption swept 180 homesAccording to the European Emergency Monitoring System based on the Copernican space. However, the number will definitely increase.
On the way to the sea, lava flows have already reached the last obstacle, as far as the urban center is concerned: Todoc, a town of about 1,200 inhabitants in the municipality of Los Llanos, southwest of La Palma, who were forced to leave. population.
Experts and government officials agree that the magma will reach the sea, but they don’t know when it will. Therefore, precautions were taken, because it is expected that when lava comes into contact with salt water at a temperature of 1000 ° C, it will release toxic gases and cause explosions.
This will be a decisive moment, warned today the head of the regional government of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres. For this reason, all departments – Spanish, Canary Islands and the island of La Palma – ask residents not to go to the roads near the volcano, or approach the lava flows.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez urged caution and announced that La Palma would be declared an emergency zone. In addition, the Canary Islands will be able to request assistance from the European Union Solidarity Funds to mitigate the damage caused by the eruption, the value of which is more than 400 million euros.
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