Endless suffering on the island of La Palma: why science does not know how long the eruption of the Cumber Vega volcano will continue

Science can’t answer questions of certainty such as how long the new La Palma volcano’s eruption will last, or whether or not more volcanic mouths will open.news agency evey Volcanologist from the Spanish Higher Center for Scientific Research (CSIC) Vicente Soller.

These are the questions that citizens or the media can ask her Very difficult answer, because the volcanic process is due to a A natural phenomenon that occurs inside the earth and cannot be reachedSoler remembers.

He emphasized that if ‘I don’t know’ were answered to these kinds of questions, then the social judgment would be to ask the question ‘So what is this guy doing over there’, but it is essential to understand that The interior of the Earth is no more accessible than space and this knowledge is obtained indirectly.

“No one has been able to get close” to the interior of the Earth, and therefore, it is not surprising that true knowledge is scarce, in the sense that there are no directly quantifiable physical observations.Soler pointed out.

Thus, he explained, when magma is said to be approaching the surface because that is what some parameters are referring to, but No one has seen his journey into the depths of the planet.

In case New volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma, whose outbreak began last Sunday in the municipality of El Paso, the process continues “Going velocity” and, in Soler’s words, you almost have to “cross your fingers to keep it that way”.

In the current situation at the La Palma eruption, there are observable geophysical and geochemical parameters that allow an “approximate” idea of ​​the state of the system and, therefore, it is known that in high tension, but the fact that it does not grow is a fact indicating that the process continues.

But from there to The assertion that it will last 25 days or that it will not stop or that a new eruptive center will open is something that science cannot answer “today”., repeated a volcanologist from the Spanish Higher Center for Scientific Research.

Note that the underground “Can’t touch it directly”.

(With information from EFE)

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