AFP

Boris Johnson tells world leaders 'frustrated' at climate inaction

Britain’s Boris Johnson took leaders of wealthy nations to task Monday in a closed-door meeting he co-hosted with UN chief Antonio Guterres, saying he is “increasingly frustrated” at their failure to honor their climate fund pledges.

Ahead of the Paris agreement, developed countries pledged to mobilize $100 billion a year from 2020 to support poorer nations to cut their carbon emissions, minimize the impact of climate change and adapt their economies to deal with its effects.

“Everyone nods and we all agree that ‘something must be done,'” said Johnson, whose country will host the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

“Yet I confess I’m increasingly frustrated that the something to which many of you have committed is nowhere near enough.”

Last week the OECD confirmed that only $79.6 billion was mobilized in 2019. 

Britain for its part trumpeted its $15 billion climate finance pledges over the next five years, and announced Monday that $750 million of that would be allocated to supporting developing countries to meet net zero targets and end the use of the goal.

“Richer nations have reaped the benefits of untrammelled pollution for generations, often at the expense of developing countries,” said Johnson, according to a statement.

“As those countries now try to grow their economies in a clean, green and sustainable way we have a duty to support them in doing so — with our technology, with our expertise and with the money we have promised.”

The meeting is part of UN climate week, and came days after Guterres warned the world was on a “catastrophic” path to 2.7 degrees Celsius heating, after the latest bombshell report by UN scientists.

The figure would shatter the temperature targets of the Paris climate agreement, which aimed for warming well below 2C and preferably capped at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.

Though the UN has not yet published a list of leaders who attended the meeting, US President Joe Biden’s public schedule said he would be at his beach house.

China’s President Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi were also absent, according to reports, meaning none of the world’s top three polluters were represented.

Lava engulfs 100 homes as Canary Islands volcano erupts

A surge of  lava destroyed around 100 homes on Spain’s Canary Islands a day after a volcano erupted, forcing 5,000 people to leave the area, local authorities said on Monday. 

The Cumbre Vieja erupted around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) on Sunday, sending vast plumes of thick black smoke into the sky and belching molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma. 

The island is one of the most westerly of the Atlantic archipelago off the coast of Morocco.

“Right now we have evacuated 5,000 people and around 100 homes have been destroyed,” said Lorena Hernandez Labrador, a councillor in Los Llanos de Ariadne, a town several kilometres from the volcano.

Images on Twitter showed slow-moving lava creeping down the mountainside, pockets of flame erupting as it rumbled ever closer towards a group of homes standing just metres away. 

Elsewhere, piles of glowing lava surged onto the patio of a house. 

Describing the scene as “desolate”, La Palma’s top official Mariano Hernandez Zapata said the lava “on average about six metres (20 feet) high”. 

“This tongue of lava is engulfing everything in its path. It’s tragic to see how many homes have just gone up in smoke,” he told Spain’s public television.

It also consumed a local primary school where 25 children were enrolled, the headmistress told Cadena Ser radio. 

“Up to about two hours ago, we thought it was going to be saved, but unfortunately it has been completely engulfed. It’s totally destroyed,” said Angeles Nieves, her voice breaking.

There was huge anguish among the thousands of people evacuated from their homes, with many wondering if they would have anything to go back to.

– ‘You have three minutes’ –

“Right now, we’re watching the news and the lava is 700 metres from our home. I’m really worried because we don’t know I don’t know what’s going to happen to it,” Angie Chaux, 27, who left with her husband and three-year-old son, told AFP. 

“The police gave us three minutes to get our things. It was all very fast.” 

La Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma, which is home to around 80,000 people.

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An “earthquake swarm” — a sequence of seismic events occurring over a short period — began on September 11.

Since then, there have been tens of thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan volcanology institute said.

The last eruption on La Palma was in 1971 when another part of the same volcanic range — a vent known as Tenegia  — erupted on the southern side of the island.

– Fleeing to safety –

Yahaira Garcia, 34, who runs a winery in the northwestern foothills of the volcano, decided to leave just before the eruption after a night of continuous quakes. 

“My house shook so much it felt like it was going to collapse,” she told AFP, saying she had rushed over to her parents house to help them get out. 

“With us we took four goats, two pigs, 20 chickens, 10 rabbits, four dogs and a turtle,” she said. 

“The images are really disturbing. Now they are saying the volcano could continue erupting for three months. 

“I haven’t slept for two nights, I can’t even shut my eyes.”

Local officials believe the lava were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

According to Involcan, the lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,830 degrees Fahrenheit).

Ahead of the eruption, local authorities had urged the public to stay away from the areas surrounding the volcano. 

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cancelled a scheduled trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly after the eruption.

He arrived at the scene late Sunday evening to assess the situation. 

The Canaries last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Canary Islands volcano destroys homes

A volcano in Spain’s Canary Islands destroyed houses as it spewed out lava and ash, authorities said Monday, a day after it erupted, forcing some 5,000 people from their homes. 

The Cumbre Vieja volcano sent huge plumes of thick black smoke into the sky after it erupted Sunday around 3:00 pm, churning up molten lava that oozed down the mountainside on the island of La Palma. 

A regional government spokeswoman told AFP “a number of houses have been destroyed”, saying they were still surveying the area to determine how many properties had been engulfed. 

Sergio Rodriguez, mayor of the nearby village of El Paso said at least 20 homes were completely destroyed by the volcano. 

“The lava left absolutely nothing in its path”, Rodriguez told TVE broadcaster, saying residents were living in uncertainty. 

They will “not be going home for a while, that’s for sure”, he added.

Spanish media said as many as 100 homes might have been affected. 

Cumbre Vieja straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan volcanology institute said.

– PM at the scene –

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

On Tuesday, the authorities raised the alert level from green to yellow in certain areas around the volcano. 

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of La Palma island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

The lava flows were moving at about 700 metres per hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 Celsius (1,830 Fahrenheit), according to the Canaries Islands Institute of Volcanology.

People had been asked to stay away from the area in the days leading up to the eruption in the areas surrounding the volcano, which are sparsely populated, 

As of Sunday evening, flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, though some 200 members of the security services had been mobilised, including a helicopter as back up.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cancelled a scheduled trip to New York for the United Nations General Assembly after the eruption.

He arrived at the scene late Sunday evening to assess the situation. 

“Given the situation (on) La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said earlier.

“All services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

Faroe Islands mass dolphin slaughter casts shadow over tradition

Every summer in the Faroe Islands hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins are slaughtered in drive hunts known as the “grind” that residents defend as a long-held tradition.

The hunt always sparks fierce criticism abroad, but never so much as last week when a particularly bountiful catch saw 1,428 dolphins massacred in one day, raising questions on the island itself about a practice that activists have long deemed cruel.

Images of hundreds upon hundreds of dolphins lined up on the sand, some of them hacked up by what appeared to be propellers, the water red with blood, shocked some of the staunchest supporters of the “grind” and raised concern in the archipelago’s crucial fishing industry.

For the first time, the local government of the autonomous Danish archipelago located in the depths of the North Atlantic said it would re-evaluate regulations surrounding the killing of dolphins specifically, without considering an outright ban on the tradition.

“I had never seen anything like it before. This is the biggest catch in the Faroes,” Jens Mortan Rasmussen, one of the hunter-fishermen present at the scene in the village of Skala, told AFP.

– Open-air slaughterhouse –

While used to criticism, he said this time round it was “a little different”.

“Fish exporters are getting quite a lot of furious phone calls from their clients and the salmon industry has NOW mobilised against dolphin-hunting. It’s a first.”

The meat of pilot whales and dolphins is only eaten by the fishermen themselves, but there is concern that news of the massacre will hit the reputation of an archipelago that relies considerably on exporting other fish including salmon.

Traditionally, the Faroe Islands  — which have a population of 50,000 — hunt pilot whales in a practice known as “grindadrap,” or the “grind.”

Hunters first surround the whales with a wide semi-circle of fishing boats and then drive them into a bay to be beached and slaughtered by fishermen on the beach.

Normally, around 600 pilot whales are hunted every year in this way, while fewer dolphins also get caught.

Defending the hunt, the Faroese point to the abundance of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in their waters (over 100,000, or two per capita).

They see it as an open-air slaughterhouse that isn’t that different to the millions of animals killed behind closed doors all over the world, said Vincent Kelner, the director of a documentary on the “grind”.

And it’s of historical significance for the Faroe Islanders: without this meat from the sea, their people would have disappeared.

– ‘Overwhelmed’ –

But still, on September 12, the magnitude of the catch in the large fjord came as a shock as fishermen targeted a particularly big school of dolphins.

The sheer number of the mammals that beached slowed down the slaughter which “lasted a lot longer than a normal grind”, said Rasmussen.

“When the dolphins reach the beach, it’s very difficult to send them back to sea, they tend to always return to the beach.”

Kelner said the fishermen were “overwhelmed”.

“It hits their pride because it questions the professionalism they wanted to put in place,” he added.

While defending the practice as sustainable, Bardur a Steig Nielsen, the archipelago’s prime minister, said Thursday the government would re-evaluate “dolphin hunts, and what part they should play in Faroese society.”

Critics say that the Faroese can no longer put forward the argument of sustenance when killing whales and dolphins.

“For such a hunt to take place in 2021 in a very wealthy European island community… with no need or use for such a vast quantity of contaminated meat is outrageous,” said Rob Read, chief operating officer at marine conservation NGO Sea Shepherd, referring to high levels of mercury in dolphin meat.

The NGO claims the hunt also broke several laws.

“The Grind foreman for the district was never informed and therefore never authorised the hunt,” it said in a statement.

It also claims that many participants had no licence, “which is required in the Faroe Islands, since it involves specific training in how to quickly kill the pilot whales and dolphins.” 

And “photos show many of the dolphins had been run over by motorboats, essentially hacked by propellers, which would have resulted in a slow and painful death.”

Faroese journalist Hallur av Rana said that while a large majority of islanders defend the “grind” itself, 53 percent are opposed to killing dolphins.

Climate shocks forced over 100,000 to flee home in Burundi: charity

Natural disasters sparked by climate change have forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes in Burundi in recent years, British charity Save the Children said in a new report released on Monday.

It said climate shocks — not conflict — were now the main cause of internal displacement in the landlocked East African country, which has a largely rural population.

“Over 84 percent of all internally displaced people in Burundi… have been displaced due to natural disasters rather than conflict, mostly due to the rise of Lake Tanganyika, Africa’s second-largest lake,” the charity said.

Children have been particularly hard-hit, it said, adding: “An estimated 7,200 of the displaced people — or 7 percent of the total number — are babies under the age of one.”

Older children are unable to attend school, with many surviving on just one meal a day, the charity said.

Arielle, a teenager whose home was swallowed up in the middle of the night by the lake’s rising waters, told Save the Children she struggled to eke out a living, earning $1.20 (one euro) a day for carrying and stacking bricks. 

“I eat most days, but some days I miss meals altogether,” the 17-year-old said.

– ‘A gross injustice’ –

Displaced farmers told the organisation that flooding disasters had intensified in recent years.

“The situation with flooding has become worse than it used to be. This time, the flood came over everything and never went back,” said Marie, a mother-of-three.

“I fear the children are going to die from hunger.”

Maggie Korde, the charity’s country director for Rwanda and Burundi, warned: “The world seems to have forgotten Burundi, and yet it’s bearing the brunt of global climate change, with children the most affected.

“We are seeing families that previously had solid homes, all children in school, and two working parents, reduced to living in tents with no employment, no food, and kids having to work for a dollar a day to support their family,” she said.

“This is a gross injustice for a community that has already experienced so much hardship.”

The report comes two years after relentless rains affected close to two million people in East Africa, and left at least 265 dead, according to an AFP tally.

The extreme weather was blamed on the sharp difference in sea surface temperature between the western and eastern areas of the Indian Ocean, with warmer waters resulting in higher evaporation and moist air flowing inwards over the continent as rain.

The waters around East Africa have been about two degrees Celsius warmer than those of the eastern Indian Ocean near Australia — an imbalance well beyond the norm.

A leaked UN climate science report, seen exclusively by AFP in June, predicts flooding will in future displace 2.7 million people in Africa annually and could contribute to 85 million being forced from their homes by 2050. 

Volcano erupts on Spain's Canary Islands

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands Sunday, spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity and forcing the evacuation of around 5,000 local people, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” at around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT) the local government said on its Twitter account.

The evacuation was obligatory in a dozen areas placed on a maximum alert and temporary shelters were opened.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” a local government statement added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”. No casualties had so far been reported, he added.

The lava reached several homes and made a number of roads impassable.

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of the island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

– PM flies in –

The lava flows were moving at about 700 metres (yards) an hour, and had a temperature of nearly 1,000 Centigrade, according to the Canaries Islands Institute of Volcanology.

“Everything leads us to believe that there won’t be any new points of eruption,” said Torres.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived at the scene late Sunday.

“Given the situation (on) La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said earlier.

“All services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

As of 1830 GMT, flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, airport operator Aena said.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised, with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing a recent upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan volcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

On Tuesday, the authorities raised the alert level from green to yellow, in certain areas around the volcano. The second of four alert levels, the change meant civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

Volcano erupts on Spain's Canary Islands

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking the evacuation of around 1,300 people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account.

The evacuation was obligatory in a dozen areas placed on a maximum alert and temporary shelters were opened.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the local government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”, adding that no casualties had so far been reported.

A total of between 5,000 and 10,000 people would be evacuated overall.

The lava reached several homes and made a number of roads impassable.

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of the island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez arrived at the scene late Sunday.

“Given the situation La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said earlier.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

As of 1830 GMT flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, airport operator Aena said.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off of northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

Volcano erupts on Spain's Canary Islands

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account, adding that the evacuation of more than 1,000 people had started in the areas closest to the volcano.

The evacuation was obligatory in a dozen areas placed on a maximum alert and temporary shelters had been opened.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the local government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”, adding that no casualties had so far been reported.

According to the local government’s projections, lava flows from the volcano, located in the centre of the island, were likely to move southwest towards inhabited and wooded areas, before reaching the coast.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced he would head to the scene later Sunday “to follow developments”.

“Given the situation La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

As of 1830 GMT flights to and from the island had not been disrupted, airport operator Aena said.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off of northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

Bees kill dozens of endangered penguins in South Africa

A swarm of bees has killed 63 endangered African penguins on a beach outside Cape Town, the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds said on Sunday.

“After tests, we found bee stings around the penguins’ eyes,” said the foundation’s David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian.

“This is a very rare occurence. We do not expect it to happen often, its a fluke.

“There were also dead bees on the scene,” he told AFP by telephone.

The protected birds, found on Friday, were from a colony at Simonstown, a small town near Cape Town.

The area is a national park and the Cape honey bees are part of the ecosystem.

“The penguins… must not die just like that as they are already in danger of extinction. They are a protected species,” said Roberts.

The South African National Parks said the birds were taken to the foundation for post-mortems and samples sent for disease and toxicology testing.

“There were no external physical injuries found on any of the birds,” a parks statement said.

The post-mortems showed all the penguins had multiple bee stings.

African penguins, which inhabit the coast and islands of southern Africa, are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list, meaning they face a high risk of extinction.

Volcano erupts on Spain's Canary Islands

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Spain’s Canary Islands on Sunday spewing out lava, ash and a huge column of smoke after days of increased seismic activity, sparking evacuations of people living nearby, authorities said.

Cumbre Vieja, which last erupted 50 years ago, straddles a ridge in the south of La Palma island, home to around 80,000 people.

“The eruption started in the Cabeza de Vaca zone, in El Paso,” the local government said on its Twitter account, adding that evacuations have started in the areas closest to the volcano.

“People are asked to be extremely careful and to stay away from the eruption zone to avoid needless risk,” the government added.

The head of the Canaries region, Angel Victor Torres, said the zone was forested and “sparsely populated”.

State television ran live coverage of the eruption during the late afternoon.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced he would head to the scene later Sunday “to follow developments”.

“Given the situation La Palma island, the head of government has delayed his scheduled departure today for New York,” to attend the UN General Assembly, a statement said.

“All the services are prepared to act in a coordinated fashion,” Sanchez wrote on Twitter.

The interior ministry said 200 members of the security services had been mobilised with a helicopter as back up.

– Thousands of tremors –

Experts had been keeping a close watch on the volcano after observing an upsurge in seismic activity and magma displacements.

An earthquake swarm under La Cumbre Vieja began a week ago and since then there had been thousands of tremors, the strongest with a magnitude of nearly four, the Involcan vulcanology institute said.

An earthquake swarm is a sequence of seismic events occurring in one place within a relatively short period of time.

The authorities had on Tuesday raised the alert level from green to yellow, the second of four levels, in certain areas around the volcano, meaning civil protection officials had to inform the public “to take precautions ahead of a possible volcanic eruption”, under an emergency plan. 

Involcan had reported a “significant ground deformation” as a result of “a small volume” of new magma flowing into the reservoir underneath the volcano, which amounted to 11 million cubic metres. 

“Undoubtedly the current seismic swarm represents a significant change in the activity of the Cumbre Vieja volcano and is related to a process of magmatic intrusion beneath the island of La Palma,” it said.

The Canaries, an archipelago of seven islands off of northwestern Africa, last recorded a volcanic eruption in 2011, undersea off El Hierro island.

Cumbre Vieja erupted twice in the 20th century — in 1971 and in 1949.

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