LA PALMA, CANARY ISLANDS — The La Palma eruption was declared over on Christmas Day, but reactivation can’t be ruled out and other major issues are now coming to the fore.
Over 85 days of actual lava flow from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, 1,219 hectares of land was covered and 1,576 properties destroyed by the molten rock, according to El Pais English.
More than 78 kilometers of roads were also covered, including those that joined the west and the south of the island, causing huge disruption.
By the end of the eruption, lava reaching the ocean had formed two deltas, one measuring 43 hectares, and in total residents had experienced more than 9,000 earthquakes.
Such devastation now comes with longer term consequences and new problems, with the Spanish government pledging more than 400 million euros or 453 million dollars for reconstruction, according to Reuters, but doctors warning of a mental health crisis on the island.
Volcanologist Alexis Schwartz, meanwhile, told Euronews that the volcano will continue to release toxic gases for a long period, and that lava already spilled out will also take a long time to cool to safe levels.
Schwartz also notably said it would take years or many months until they could rule out a future reactivation of the Cumbre Vieja volcano.
Optimistically, he explained that channels to the surface are currently locked by lava cooling down, so new pools of magma that try to reach the surface may find it increasingly difficult to do so.
But more cautiously he added: “The Canary Islands, and especially La Palma, are very active volcanic islands.
So constantly we measure the magma coming from the mantle and trying to reach the surface.”
