Volcano on uninhabited Galapagos island erupts, sends lava flowing to sea

QUITO, Ecuador — A volcano on an uninhabited island within the Galapagos has begun erupting, lighting up the nighttime sky as lava tumbled down its sides towards the ocean.

The La Cumbre volcano on Fernandina island started erupting Saturday round midnight in what officers with Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute stated may very well be its largest eruption since 2017. The 1,476-meter (4,842-foot) volcano final erupted in 2020.

Photographs shared on social media taken by guests to the Galapagos present the volcano profiled in opposition to a crimson crimson sky.

Whereas the eruption posed no danger to people, the island is house to various species, together with iguanas, penguins and flightless cormorants. In 2019, scientists discovered on the island an enormous tortoise not seen in additional than a century and had been feared extinct.

The La Cumbre volcano is likely one of the most energetic within the Galapagos Island chain, which is known all through the world for serving to nineteenth century British scientist Charles Darwin develop his principle of evolution.