Inside La Palma’s Volcano, Gas Emissions Mark Colorful Terrain

Members of the INVOLCAN technical team take measurements next to the crater of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, in Cabeza de Vaca, on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, January 21, 2022. Picture taken January 21, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. (Reuters)
Members of the INVOLCAN technical team take measurements next to the crater of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, in Cabeza de Vaca, on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, January 21, 2022. Picture taken January 21, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. (Reuters)
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Inside La Palma’s Volcano, Gas Emissions Mark Colorful Terrain

Members of the INVOLCAN technical team take measurements next to the crater of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, in Cabeza de Vaca, on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, January 21, 2022. Picture taken January 21, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. (Reuters)
Members of the INVOLCAN technical team take measurements next to the crater of the Cumbre Vieja volcano, in Cabeza de Vaca, on the Canary Island of La Palma, Spain, January 21, 2022. Picture taken January 21, 2022. Picture taken with a drone. (Reuters)

Two bare pine tree trunks remain standing inside the jagged and colorful main crater of the volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma, while gas emissions and high temperatures continue though they are easing a month after the eruption ended.

A Reuters crew was on Friday granted rare access to the edge of the volcano's craters with a team from the Canary Islands Volcanology Institute (Involcan), who went inside one of the six craters to measure gas emissions and temperatures and check that their monitoring stations were functioning well.

Powerful gas emissions during the 85-day volcanic eruption have tainted parts of the crater yellow, orange and white.

The surrounding terrain is pitch black, with violent tongues of lava scattered along slopes completely covered with a thick blanket of volcanic ash. Scores of burnt pine trees are now beige.

"Despite having been inside (the crater) many times, it always strikes me how big it is. Once you are inside you realize it's huge, gigantic," said Pedro Hernandez, the Involcan volcanologist leading the team.

"There are many craters and gas emissions continue to be very impressive from a visual perspective."

The volcanic eruption in La Palma in the Canary Islands, which officially ended on Christmas Day, was the most devastating in Europe in 80 years, he said.

Rivers of lava destroyed around 3,000 buildings and scores of fields covering 1,219 hectares, although no direct deaths were reported.

Temperatures inside the craters were around 840 degrees Celsius, lower than the 1,100 degrees registered around two weeks before. But extremely high temperatures could continue for several years, said Hernandez, 53. This is the eighth volcanic eruption he has studied on the ground.

His team also checked in person that gas emissions from the craters' edges had slightly decreased but the volcano continued to emit sulphur and carbon dioxide, which could be smelled in the surrounding area.

Fifteen minutes from the crater by foot, where the Involcan expedition left its vehicles, the ground remained warm.

What is most striking for locals is that what used to be a low set of green slopes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and the towns below has now been transformed forever after the eruption brought a huge volcanic cone to the surface.

The area close to the craters remains closed to the public in a closely policed perimeter, leaving most of the area in almost absolute silence only interrupted by birdsong and the wind.



UK's Oldest Man, WWII Veteran, Donald Rose, Dies at 110

WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)
WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)
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UK's Oldest Man, WWII Veteran, Donald Rose, Dies at 110

WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)
WW2 veteran Donald Rose, 110, poses for a photo at the National Memorial Arboretum, ahead of a memorial event hosted by the Royal British Legion to mark the 80th anniversary of V-E Day, in Alrewas, Staffordshire, England, Thursday, May 8, 2025. (Jacob King/PA via AP, File)

Britain’s oldest World War II veteran, Donald Rose, has died at the age of 110.

Rose participated in the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, and was part of the division that liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in northern Germany.

In a statement Friday, the leader of the Erewash Borough Council in the north of England, James Dawson, announced Rose's death, calling him a “war hero.”

“Erewash was privileged to count him as a resident," he added, The AP news reported.

In May, Rose joined 45 other veterans as guests of honor at a tea party celebration hosted by the Royal British Legion at the National Memorial Arboretum, to mark 80 years since Victory in Europe Day.

Rose, who was born on Christmas Eve in 1914 following the outbreak of hostilities in World War I, said at the event that he did not celebrate VE Day at the time.

“When I heard that the armistice had been signed 80 years ago, I was in Germany at Belsen and, like most active soldiers, I didn’t get to celebrate at that time," he said. “We just did what we thought was right and it was a relief when it was over.”

Originally from the village of Westcott, southwest of London, Rose joined the army aged 23 and served in North Africa, Italy and France, according to the Royal British Legion. He received a number of medals and was awarded France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur.

Rose is also believed to have been the UK’s oldest man.