Everyone that has studied this is aware of the implications. If La
Palma collapses, a giant tsunami would engulf our east coast.
http://www.euroresidentes.com/Blogs/2005/08/volcanic-activity-in-canary-islands.htm
Monday, August 15, 2005
Volcanic activity in the Canary Islands
Spanish scientists monitoring volcanic activity in the Canary Islands
have registered a definite increase in the number of seismic tremors
registered in Tenerife over the past year. The location of the
tremors, in the north-east of the Island, reveal that the volcanic
behaviour has changed, although the scientists say it is too soon to
say exactly how.
The volcanologists, speaking in a UIMP University Summer course on
natural risks, said that unlike other kinds of natural disasters,
volcanoes always give ample warning before an eruption. But the main
problem they face in trying to work out exactly what the changes in
Tenerife mean, is that in order to make accurate predictions, you need
to be able to compare activity with records extending over a period of
hundreds of years. And activity in the Teide volcano began to be
monitored only 500 years ago "just one breath in the life of a
volcano", according to the scientists.
Alicia Felpeto, volcanologist of the Jaume Almera Earth Science
Institute said she believed she would see at least one volcano
eruption in the Canary Islands during her lifetime.
The last time a volcano erupted in the Canary Islands was in 1971 when
Teneguía erupted on the island La Palma. It was a very calm eruption
which spread over two months with no major explosions involved.
As far as Tenerife is concerned, statistics show that the Island
registers an eruption in one of its volcanoes once every hundred
years. The biggest volcano in Tenerife, El Teide, has not erupted for
1,250 years.
The rise in seismic activity over the past year or so has led local
authorities to make improvements to the systems of volcano
surveillance on the Island. More advanced instruments will help
scientists to understand better what the recent changes may mean.
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