Teide takes “one more step”, after having registered up to three seismic swarms in the last week. The director of the Geographic Institute of the Canary Islands (IGN), Itahiza Domínguez, has clarified, despite this increased activity, that the short or medium-term probability of another emergency has not changed, and that, for now, there are no signs that indicate an imminent eruptive process. “We hope to see different signs, earthquakes of greater magnitude, movement towards the surface, which we do not see yet,” Domínguez explained this Thursday in Tenerife after a meeting of the scientific committee of the Canary Islands Volcanic Emergency Plan (Pevolca).
Since February 7, the largest island of the Canary archipelago has seen “an increase in low-frequency activity,” explains the director of the IGN, with events located west of Las Cañadas del Teide, at a depth of between 8.5 and 10 kilometers, with magnitudes lower than 0.7 or 0.8 mbLg, the lowest). The last swarm of the series, recorded this Wednesday, has, however, been the longest of those that have been recorded so far.
he admitted. This is “a new phase” of which it is unknown whether it will continue over time or cease. “It is no surprise that we have more swarms of this type any more than if this stopped.”
In any case, Domínguez himself explained in his speech that it is difficult to make predictions about possible eruptions in Tenerife. Firstly, because there is no instrumental record of volcanic eruptions in Tenerife, so scientists have to draw on historical references and references from other volcanic systems in the world to define probabilities. Secondly, due to the complexity of the island’s volcanic system, which combines a central system with a shallow magmatic chamber that generates evolved magmas, and basaltic eruptions on ridges—such as that of La Palma. This is a mixture that “is not very common in the world,” the volcanologist has stated. “There are no easy analogues to find.”
In anticipation of an eruption, the (in addition to community institutions) carried out the first in Spain in September.
