La Palma Volcano

Just upgraded by the sciency folk from a VEI 2 to a VEI 3. The scale goes from 0 to 8 logarithmically. A three is ten times larger than a two and so on. This is the biggest eruption in La Palma's recorded human history. All others have been a two.

The town of El Paraíso is gone. The town of Todoque is gone. El Pedregal is gone. La Laguna is currently being destroyed as of this posting. Tazacorte seems to be next, but Los Llanos - the major town in the area - is also in real danger.

I'm sure there are people here who have visited this island and loved it. British holidaymakers are their main visitors, along with the Germans.

I just watched a video of an elderly lady from Todoque describe how her entire life, including all of her memories of her late husband, have been destroyed before she ever had a chance to react.

Puts our football club worries into perspective.

 

Does beg the question though, why do towns persist around things such as volcanoes, fault lines, etc.?

You'd think over time, as knowledge of these things improves we'd naturally begin to vacate those types of locations.

I get that some older types would resist a move away, but I can't get my head around folk buying a holiday home on the slope of an active volcano.

 

Volcanic land is very fertile, so traditionally that explains part of living next to them.

 

I'm no expert by any stretch, and I'm basing this on the film Dante's Peak, but presumably you can't really predict when a volcano is likely to erupt. I was under the impression that if it looked 'likely to blow' it could do so in any time over the next 1000 years.

Many generations of the same family may have lived there in the knowledge that the volcano is overdue an eruption, before it ever actually erupts.

Like I say though, I'm basing that on a Pierce Brosnan movie.

 

It's only 7:45am and I already know this is the best thing I'll read all day

 

Mother nature wins out in the end. Doncaster should be a coastal town but for Dutch Dike experts.

 

I'm watching it on a live YouTube feed and it is very active and spectacular this morning.
I have been fascinated to see how the mountain has changed shape so many times as each eruption blasts rock and lava out of the earth to dump it elsewhere.
The human cost cannot be imagined.

 

Five years ago this week we were on holiday in Puerto Naos which is about a mile or so away from the flow but is covered in ash. It's been humbling watching this unfold in the media.

 

There's something mesmerising about a volcano. And maybe that overrides logic and sense in us. Maybe we see the risk as so remote for something so dangerous and powerful that we can't help ourselves.

I was in Indonesia when Mount Agung slowly and steadily erupted and the locals were very blasé about it. We were monitoring the flights daily as some were being cancelled and we island hopped quite a lot. The final flight home (well to Singapore) flew surprisingly close to the volcano rim and you could see the gases venting from the crater. An incredibly humbling sight.

On the flip side, I've been to Herculaneum (close to Pompeii) and seen the devastation a volcano can have when it properly goes.

 

They can trigger mega tsunami's too.

 

Thinking about it, I suppose buying a holiday home on the slope of an active volcano is like supporting Barnsley.

You know you shouldn't do it, but do it anyway

 

Some beautiful footage

 

Iceland, quite spectacular.

 

That's why mums go to Iceland.

 

I suggest watching it with the sound off so as not to hear the stupid whooping Americans. There's nothing quite like an American to ruin an incredible act of nature.

 

Get in the hole.

 

If only they would!

 

I turn the sound off quite a bit. It puts me off.

 

That's quite a flex from Iceland.

 

Mashed potato!