La Palma has registered 300 earthquakes this Wednesday after two weeks in which the number of earthquakes was below 100 a day, thus exceeding the maximum observed in the two months of the eruption, which had been established on October 24.
According to the data published by the National Geological Institute (IGN) on its website, that day 271 earthquakes were located on the island, a figure lower than the 300 marked this Wednesday.
This rebound occurs when, for several days, there has been a downward trend in several indicators of the volcano’s activity, including seismicity.
In fact, the total number of daily earthquakes had been below the 200 mark since October 28 and had been under a hundred for almost a week (since November 11).
The maximum earthquake of this volcanic crisis occurred days before the eruption began, on September 14, with more than 300. At that time, a third of the movements had magnitude less than 2, while the rest were located in values from 2 to 3.
Most earthquakes do not exceed magnitude 3
This Wednesday, two thirds of the earthquakes are in magnitudes of 2 to 3 and the remaining third, from 3 to 4, with an earthquake above 4.
The different scientific bodies that monitor the eruption are collecting different data to find out if what happened this Wednesday is a specific rebound or announces a change in dynamics in the volcano, after days of apparent downward activity.