Canary Islands volcano that caused concern about tsunami in Brazil erupts; no tsunami formed

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL -The Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands archipelago erupted on Sunday (19) after days of intense surveillance due to its seismic activity, local authorities announced.

“The eruption began in the area of Cabeza de Vaca, in El Paso,” the island’s local government reported on its Twitter account, which began evacuating inhabited areas near the volcano.

Scary scenario if it were to go down. 🌋😱#LaPalma #Volcano pic.twitter.com/3l6Ym7Sh7P

— voicesfromthecrypt (@Voicesfromthec1) September 19, 2021

According to the first images broadcast live on Spanish public television around 4:30 PM local time (11:30 AM Brasília time), the volcano spewed large columns of smoke, ash, and lava.

Cumbre Vieja was on high alert for a week due to increased seismic activity on the island.

The president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, will travel this Sunday to the island of La Palma, his office announced.

“Given the situation generated on the island of La Palma, the president of the government has postponed the trip planned for today to New York” to attend the UN General Assembly, “and will travel this very afternoon to the Canary Islands to follow the evolution of events,” the Spanish government press service said in a statement.

Since Saturday, the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute has recorded several thousand low-intensity earthquakes, up to level 4 on the Richter scale, in the volcano area.

The last eruption of Cumbre Vieja occurred in 1971. The Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands had its previous blast in 2011, this time underwater on the island of El Hierro.

Tsunami in Brazil

🔴Imágenes de la erupción volcánica en La Palma. La UME confirma que se está desplazando a la isla. pic.twitter.com/1IJi9FmEjr

— 7NN Noticias (@7nn_Tv) September 19, 2021

This week, internet users were frightened by the possibility of the volcanic eruption causing a tsunami capable of hitting the coast of Brazil. With this, the term has entered the issues at the moment, also provoking countless memes. But, after all, are the chances of this phenomenon happening a real cause for concern?

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In the view of Professor Francisco de Assis Dourado from the Center for Research and Studies on Disasters of the Rio de Janeiro State University (Uerj), the consequences of the volcano’s eruption on the island of La Palma would not be responsible for generating colossal waves. He explained that simulations showing the arrival of a tsunami use extreme speeds.

“But the probabilities within those parameters are minimal,” he said.

Although the chances of tsunamis off the country’s coast are rare, such a phenomenon has already happened here. The Twitter profile of the Brazilian Seismographic Network recalled, in a post on November 1, 2020, when a tsunami hit the coast of the Northeast in 1755.

Here is the live feed from Canary Islands TV on eruption of volcano on La Palma:https://t.co/c8JIeXN7qF

— Matthew Bennett (@matthewbennett) September 19, 2021

For Dourado, a real cause for concern for Brazil would be an event like the one that occurred in 1755, when an earthquake hit Lisbon and ended up causing a tsunami that reached the Northeast coast. If something like this were to happen again, the professor would say that residents could worry.

“I would say that La Palma could be an interesting reason to call attention to the real risk that we have on our coast. And there I would draw attention to one thing: it could be a type of phenomenon that occurs very rarely,” he stated.

“For example, if the 1755 earthquake [in Portugal] happened again, with the same proportions that occurred at that time, which destroyed Lisbon and Southern Europe, then we would have to worry because we would be talking about a wave that would reach [according to the simulations that we did, which were well-grounded scientifically] Fernando de Noronha with a height of 2 meters, and here on the coast of the Northeast at some points with a height of 1.7 or 1.8 meters.

The professor then said that waves of the sizes described could get even more significant when reaching the coast, with risks of causing loss and damage. “That is, let’s suppose a 2-meter wave arrives on the coast: the maximum height it will reach is up to regions with an altitude of 8 meters.”

In 1755, the Northeast would again be the region at most significant risk of receiving large waves should the Cumbre Vieja erupt. “The Northeast is the region that could be most affected by this phenomenon there from La Palma because despite being more than 4,500 kilometers away, it would be the closest part Brazil has to that region.”