The La Cumbre volcano on the uninhabited island of Fernandina in Ecuador's Galapagos tourist archipelago has erupted, the National Institute of Geophysics said on Sunday.
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On the night of Saturday to Sunday, “a thermal anomaly and a gas emission were recorded at La Cumbre, whose summit is at 1,463 meters,” the institute said.
A gas cloud that did not contain much ash was moved by the wind without affecting the population of other islands such as Isabela, he added.
AFP
The institute said videos shared on social media confirmed the eruption from a circumferential fissure on the volcano's southern flank.
La Cumbre has erupted four times in almost eight years. The last eruption took place in January 2020 and lasted around nine hours.
“It is not possible to accurately predict the duration of the eruption nor whether it will reach the sea coast, but according to volcanic deformation data collected since the last eruption period, it is likely that the current eruption will be larger than who observed “2017, 2018 and 2020,” the institute said.
AFP
He recommended that tourists stay away when lava flows enter the sea as small explosions and the release of toxic gases could occur. Fernandina has a reception point for hikers.
With between 28 and 30 recorded eruptions since 1800, La Cumbre has the highest recurrence rate of eruptions in the Ecuadorian tourist archipelago.
Fernandina, located at the western end of the Galapagos Islands, covers an area of 638 km2 and is home to an endemic species of yellow land iguana (Conolophus subcristatus), whose population has grown despite the threat of volcanic eruptions.
“The skies of the western #Galapagos have woken up red!” wrote the local airport on the social network.
The Galapagos Islands have been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO due to their unique fauna and flora. They are named after the giant tortoises that live there and are located 1,000 km from the Ecuadorian coast.