The rationalization for the hanging picture of La Palma after the rains: ‘clouds’ of water vapor over the laundry


The volcano erupted on September 19 and was energetic for 85 days till it ended on December 25. The temperature of the lava flows continues to be excessive sufficient to evaporate the rainwater that has fallen in latest days, forming massive columns of water vapor It is an atmospheric phenomenon very attribute of an space that has had an eruption comparatively lately

Fifteen months have handed for the reason that Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma started to roar and it has been virtually a yr because it was accomplished. The volcano erupted on September 19 within the place generally known as Cabeza de Vaca, in La Palma. For 85 days it remained energetic till December 13 when it ceased its exercise. The island authorities confirmed on December 25 that the volcanic disaster had ended.

It is spectacular to see the warmth that’s nonetheless launched from the volcano’s flows with the rain, virtually a yr after it was turned off. With a period of three months, the lava lined this space within the southwest of the Isla Bonita, destroying 1000’s of buildings, homes and infrastructures and forcing 1000’s of residents to go away their houses, a lot of whom are nonetheless ready for help to have the ability to begin once more. Still immediately some crater vents present remnants of magma a number of meters from the floor. In these pictures you possibly can see the water vapor that they offer off with the falling water.

The slope of the volcano of La Palma nonetheless “smokes” with the rainniusdiario.es

Just a few meters from the floor the temperature continues to be very excessive

“The cause is obvious,” says Rubén López, a volcanologist on the National Geographic Institute (IGN). “It is a really attribute atmospheric phenomenon of an space that has had an eruption comparatively lately.” The temperature of the lava flows continues to be excessive sufficient to evaporate the rainwater that has fallen in latest days, forming massive columns of water vapor.

Just a few meters from the floor the temperature continues to be very altaniusdiario.es

Contact with the air causes the superficial crust of the lava flows to solidify a number of hours after its emission, and acquires that attribute black shade. But this solidification solely happens in probably the most superficial half, which is involved with air, which is way colder than lava. Beneath this superficial crust, the temperature stays excessive for for much longer.

The excessive temperatures and the rain trigger this meteorological phenomenon to happen oniusdiario.es

“We are speaking about an space, about some rocks, which after they have been fashioned have been at 900 or 1,000 levels Cº,” remembers Lopéz, and that, “proper now on the floor they will simply be at 60º. As quickly as you move a meter in direction of the within, though it relies upon lots on the areas, you possibly can attain 200 or 300 levels, with which, when the water filters, it rises upwards once more within the type of water vapor, leaving these very attribute clouds”.

Just a few meters from the floor the temperature continues to be very altaniusdiario.es

there may be nothing to worry

“It’s not the primary time we have seen them,” says the IGN volcanologist. Already throughout the eruption, round these similar dates, it was seen that it rained as soon as and now we see it once more, particularly because of the quantity of water that has fallen.

“It is just not harmful, there may be nothing to worry, it’s regular for this phenomenon to happen,” he explains. It is solely a meteorological response to the warmth that there’s after the water falls within the lava flows which can be already roughly one yr previous.”