TOURISTS planning a trip to Tenerife have been warned about a “potentially scary” volcano “eruption” drill.
It comes after the Canary island – famous for its volcanic activity – has been shaken by a series of underground tremors in recent weeks.
AlamyTenerife’s Mount Teide – the highest peak in Spain – has been rattled by tremors[/caption]
GettyThe popular tourist island Tenerife, with Mount Teide seen in the background[/caption]
Tremors were recorded from Mount Teide last week, some of which were “at unusually shallow depths”, reports Canarian Weekly.
One quake was registered at a depth of one kilometre and another at the surface, according to data from Spain’s National Geographic Institute.
A week-long drill – the first of its kind for a volcano in a Spanish municipality – is scheduled for September 26 to assess the risk of an emergency.
All Tenerife residents will receive phone alerts and many will be asked to leave their homes in what will apparently be the largest volcanic emergency drill.
Similar exercises have only ever been carried out on islands like Hawaii along with Stromboli and Sicily in Italy.
The president of Tenerife’s government, Rosa Dávila, said the drill has been planned for some time and is not a response to the recent swarms.
“This is a brave decision calling for calm because the risk is not going to disappear,” she stressed.
Organised by Tenerife’s government, the drill is part of the EU MODEX Civil Protection project.
Experts will monitor volcanic risk and emergency procedures from September 22 and September 28.
Residents will receive a mobile alert on September 26 at 9am – the moment the eruption will be simulated.
From September 22, the volcanic risk map of the island will move from green to yellow, orange and finally red, explained Dávila.
In Garachico, specifically the Muelle Viejo district, people will be evacuated, she said.
Dávila added that other emergencies will also be simulated across the municipality, mobilising 1,000 people including scientists, Cabildo technicians and members of the Military Emergency Unit.
“We must not forget that we are volcanically active islands although we are not at all facing an imminent situation” of volcanic emergency neither in the short nor in the medium term,” she said.
Lucca D’Auria, director of volcanic monitoring of Involcan, said the recent tremors recorded in Tenerife “are not at all” indicative of magma movement.
He explained they are linked to the island’s hydrothermal system and “fit within normality” for a volcanically active area.
D’Auria estimates that in the next 50 years the probability of an eruption is 48.7 per cent in La Palma, 39.3 per cent in Tenerife (10.6 per cent in El Teide) and 9.7 per cent in Gran Canaria.
He believes that residents in the Canaries underestimate the risks of living on volcanic islands, stressing the need for better information.
Minister of Security, Emergencies and the Natural Environment Blanca Pérez said: “Tenerife had to take a giant step in this area, which is why we have designed a map of logistical points of action and support and mobility structures have already been created for the areas that could potentially be affected by a possible volcanic eruption.”
The week-long drill will involve emergency services and organisations like the Red Cross, replicating what would happen if Mount Teide actually erupted.
Massive damage was caused in Garachico in 1706 when the Trevejo volcano erupted from May 5 to June 13.
The volcano completely devastated and buried the village and old port, though no one was reported to have died.
It comes after the Canaries were battered by sudden snowfall after heavy rainfall hit the archipelago in March.
Dramatic pictures from Tenerife’s Teide National Park show the mountain blanketed in snow.
AlamyMount Teide in an active volcano located on Tenerife[/caption]