MORE EARTHQUAKES MAKE AREA EVEN MORE UNSTABLE
Several small earthquakes shook the island of La Palma in the Atlantic Ocean off northwest Africa on Tuesday, keeping nerves on edge after a volcanic eruption on Sunday. The island has a population of 85,000 and is part of the Canary Islands archipelago. It is a major tourist destination for Europeans.
The new fissure, which authorities said was a sign of instability and danger, kept people away from the island for at least two kilometers (1.25 miles).
The rivers of lava, up to six meters (nearly 20 feet) high, rolled down hillsides, burning and crushing everything in their path as they gradually closed in on the island’s more densely populated coast. One was descending on Todoque, where over 1,000 people lived, and emergency services prepared for evacuations.
Up to now, around 190 houses have been destroyed, and 6,000 people forced to evacuate.
“The truth is that it’s a tragedy to see people losing their properties,” Fernando Diaz, a municipal worker in El Paso, said that the eruption had caused the evacuation of 6,000 people.