La Palma volcano: Canary Islands hit by 40 tremors in 48 hours
The popular holiday island is being monitored for volcanic activity
La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, was hit by a series of mini-earthquakes at the weekend, measuring between 1.5 and 2.7 on the Richter scale.
Between Saturday 7 and Tuesday 10 October the island experienced 50 tremors, with the biggest taking place on Saturday at 1pm.
However, the tremors took place at a depth of around 17 miles below sea level – deep enough that people on the island didn’t feel them.
La Palma is the most actively volcanic of the Canary Islands; its most recent eruption took place in 1971, when the Cumbre Vieja volcano spewed lava.
The recent set of tremors is catagorised as a “seismic swarm”, a phenomenon that is not considered abnormal, director of the IGN in the Canary Islands, María José Blanco, told Canarias7.
She noted, however, that they had “never recorded a similar swarm” since they started monitoring seismic activity on La Palma.
The IGN and the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands (Involcan) are now keeping a closer eye on La Palma’s volcanic activity in light of the swarm.
La Palma is the most north westerly of the Canary Islands, home to more than 86,000 residents.
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