La Palma house engulfed by slow moving lava - Resident despairs as family home is destroyed.

The Santaella brothers check in on their family home in Tajuya on the Spanish island of La Palma daily, despite the house being engulfed by slow-moving lava, it continues to defy the explosive volcanic eruption that has been underway for over six weeks.

The large villa set in a vast garden with fruit trees was built by their parents 40 years ago, as is common amongst families on the island.

According to the latest data from the European observation system Copernicus, the lava has completely or partially destroyed 1,186 buildings, with 95 more at risk.

Julio Pérez, the regional minister for security on the Canary Islands, said: "We cannot say that we expect the eruption that began 21 days ago to end anytime soon."

But fears are growing that the lava flowing into the sea could cause a tsunami.

This follows studies assessing the impact of this in the Canary Islands.

A scientific article by Steven Ward, of the University of California, and Simon Day, from the University of London, warns of a possible mega-tsunami from La Palma

They estimated that the giant waves generated by a flank collapse would hit the Moroccan and Spanish coasts in two to three hours.

The wave would then surge across the Atlantic to strike the Brazilian, US and Canadian coasts in nine hours.

Research by CSIC's Geosciences Barcelona also reveals a tsunami risk.

By reconstructing the last major geological cascading event that took place here 180,000 years ago in Al Abrigo when a volcano collapsed, they were able to analyse what would happen.

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La Palma volcano carnage sparks tsunami fears as satellite pics show river of lava as big as ‘three-storey building’

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