A volcano located on an uninhabited island in the Galapagos has begun to erupt, sending lava gushing down the sides of the mountain towards the ocean beneath it. Located roughly 600 miles from Ecuador’s mainland, the La Cumbre volcano on the island of Fernandina started to erupt on Saturday March 2 at about midnight local time.
[Related: Geologists: We’re not ready for volcanoes.]
According to Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute, this may be the 4,842-foot volcano’s largest eruption since 2017.
“Gas emission and thermal anomalies were detected through satellite systems,” said Ecuador’s environmental ministry in a statement according to Reuters. They added that they will continue to monitor the eruption, but that it would not likely affect tourism to the islands.
This volcano system has produced close to 30 recorded eruptions since 1800. The La Cumbre volcano is one of the most active in the Galapagos Island chain. It last erupted in 2020, following an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.7 that produced 29 aftershocks. Most of the recent eruptions have occurred along fissures around the summit crater.
The eruption does not pose a risk to humans, but Fernandina Island is home to a number of unique animal species. Penguins, iguanas, snakes, an endemic rat species, flightless cormorants and more all live on the third largest island in the Galapagos. In 2019, a team of scientists discovered a giant tortoise on Fernandina that they feared had gone extinct. The island chain in the Pacific Ocean is known throughout the world for helping Charles Darwin develop his theory of evolution in the 19th Century….
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